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SERVICE WITH THE THIRD WISCONSIN 
INFANTRY 



I 




Julian Wis.ver Hixkley 
From a photograph taken in July, 1864 



Wisconsin History Commission: Original Papers, No. 7 

A NARRATIVE OF SERVICE 

WITH THE THIRD WISCONSIN INFANTRY 



BY JULIAN WISNER HINKLEY 

Captain of Company E, and sometime Acting Major 
of said Regiment 



WISCONSIN HISTORY COMMISSION 
SEPTEMBER, 1912 

Collected set.^ 



TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED 



Copyright, 1912 
THE WISCONSIN HISTORY COMMISSION 

(in behalf of the State of Wisconsm) 



Opinions or enors of fact on the part of the respective authors of the Commission s 
publications (whether Reprints or Original Narratives) have not been modified or 
corrected by the Commission. For all statements, of whatever character, the Author 
alone is responsible 



DEMOCRAT PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTER 






^^\ 



^' 



Contents 



PAGE 

Wisconsin History Commission . . viii 

Editor's Preface . . . . ix 

Service with the Third Wisconsin Infantry: 
Enlistment and training ... 1 

Departure for the front ... 7 

Service in Maryland .... 9 

On the trail of Stonewall Jackson . .15 

The tables turned . . . .22 

At Cedar Mountain . . . .32 

The Army retreats northward . . 38 

Moving toward the enemy . . .47 

Battle of South Mountain . . .49 

Battle of Antietam . . . .51 

In winter quarters . . . .63 

Chancellorsville . . . .66 

A cavalry expedition . . . .78 

Gettysburg . . . . . 80 

On draft riot duty . . . .92 

With the Army of the Cumberland . .97 

The Third veteranizes . . . . 1 02 

Reorganizing Lincoln County . .106 

[V] 



Opening of the Atlanta campaign 

Wounded and in hospital 

The siege of Atlanta 

The march to the sea 

In front of Savannah 

In Savannah 

Marching northward 

Peace . 

Homeward 



Index 



116 
124 
129 
146 
153 
163 
166 
173 
176 

183 



[vi] 



Illustration 

Portrait of the Author . , Frontispiece 



[vii] 



Wisconsin History Commission 

(Organized under the provisions of Chapter 298, 
Laws of 1905, as amended by Chapter 378, 
Laws of 1907, Chapter 445, Laws of 1909, 
and Chapter 628, Laws of 1 91 1 ) 

FRANCIS E. McGOVERN 
Governor of Wisconsin 

CHARLES E. ESTABROOK 

Representing Department of Wisconsin, Grand 
Arm^ of the Republic 

REUBEN G. THWAITES 

Superintendent of the State Historical Society of 
Wisconsin 

CARL RUSSELL FISH 

Professor of American History in the University of 
Wisconsin 

MATTHEW S. DUDGEON 

Secretar}) of the Wisconsin Library Commission 



Chairman, Commissioner Estabrook 
Secretary^ and Editor, Commissioner Thwaites 
Committee on Publications, COMMISSIONERS Thwaites 
AND Fish 

[ viii ] 



EDITOR'S PREFACE 

The author of this volume was born at Vernon, 
Connecticut, on March 1 2, 1 838, of a long line of 
New England ancestry; he was sixth in order of 
descent from Governor Thomas Hinkley of Ply- 
mouth Colony. Coming to Wisconsin in his elev- 
enth year, Julian grew to young manhood on his 
father's farm at Waupun and in Portage County. 
In 1 858, our author left the farm and started life 
for himself — teaching school in winter, and work- 
ing as a carpenter each summer. 

On April 1 9, 1 86 1 , Mr. Hinkley enlisted in the 
Waupun Light Guard for three months. But the 
services of the organization were not accepted for 
that short term by the State military authorities, so 
on May 8 they were proffered and accepted for the 
war, and the organization became Company E of 
the Third Wisconsin Infantry. Hinkley was at 
the organization appointed First-Sergeant ; but on 
February 6, 1 862, he was commissioned Second- 
Lieutenant of his company, became First-Lieuten- 
ant on November 1 following, and on May 4, 

[ix] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

1 863, took command of the Company as Captain. 
He continued to serve the Third Wisconsin until 
its final discharge and payment in Madison on Au- 
gust 26, 1 865, but during the last few months of 
this period was the acting Major of the Regiment. 
Since the war, Major Hinkley has been largely 
engaged in erecting public buildings, and has a 
wide acquaintance throughout Northeast Wiscon- 
sin. 

The Commission is much pleased at this oppor- 
tunity to publish Major Hinkley's Narrative. 
The book has only in part been written from mem- 
ory. It has been made up from several excellent 
sources : ( I ) A manuscript diary kept from day 
to day, or week to week, by Mr. Hinkley during 
the years of his service; (2) several contemporary 
letters written by him, either to the local press of 
his section of the State, or to relatives and friends at 
home; and lastly (3) , a manuscript narrative writ- 
ten by the author several years after the war, for 
the edification of his children. The work of amal- 
gamating these diverse materials has fallen to the 
lot of the editorial department of the Commission ; 
the result, however, has been passed upon in detail 

[X] ' 



EDITOR S PREFACE 

by Major Hinkley, and in its present continuous 
form accepted by him as his final narrative. This 
method of compilation has secured a manuscript 
possessing a contemporaneous flavor and accuracy, 
not usual with reminiscences. The Commission- 
ers feel that the book is an interesting and valuable 
contribution to the literature of the war, being the 
view-point of a company commander in one of the 
most active of Wisconsin regiments, throughout 
the entire period of the struggle. 

R. G. T. 
Wisconsin Historical Library 
September, 1912 



[xi] 



SERVICE IN THE THIRD WISCON- 
SIN INFANTRY 

Enlistment and Training 

THE presidential election of 1860 found me 
just become of age. I exercised my newly- 
acquired rights of citizenship, in the then little vil- 
lage of Waupun, Wisconsin, by participating in the 
hurrahing and torchlight processions that in those 
days characterized a political campaign. I was 
a carpenter by trade, but immediately after the 
election went to teach a country school in the 
backwoods town of Buena Vista, in Portage 
County. Daily papers in that sparsely settled 
community were of course an unknown luxury, 
and it was only through the weeklies that we 
heard of the gathering storm in the Nation. From 
them we learned how State after State in the 
South were holding conventions, that they were 
passing ordinances of secession, and that the dele- 
gates were gathering at Montgomery, Alabama, 
to organize the Confederate States of America. 
1 [I] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

In the North, few people seemed as yet to 
realize that a great war was impending. The 
Southern newspapers boastfully asserted that se- 
cession might be accomplished in peace, for the 
Northerners were a nation of shopkeepers and 
mechanics, who would never fight to prevent it. 
And these statements, reprinted in the Northern 
papers, were far from soothing, for there is nothing 
that so quickly arouses the combativeness of men, 
and especially of young men, as the intimation 
that they are cowards. Thus were the younger 
and more hot-headed men on both sides being 
stirred to warlike feeling by newspaper writers, 
until such hostile sentiment was aroused that war 
was inevitable. 

Immediately after the secession of South Caro- 
lina, I had expressed my intention, in conversa- 
tion with my friends, that should war follow, I 
would have a hand in it. This determination 
grew as events drifted on from bad to worse. I 
cannot say that I was very strongly animated by a 
love for the Union in the abstract, or that I consid- 
ered the abolition of slavery worth fighting for; 
but I felt that the dismemberment of the Union by 

[2]- 



ENLISTMENT AND TRAINING 

armed force, submitted to without a struggle, 
would be a disgrace to the whole North. 

The events of the following winter and spring 
are a part of the history of the Nation. Abraham 
Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1 86 1 . On 
April 1 2, Fort Sumter was fired upon, and sur- 
rendered on the 1 4th. On April 1 5 Lincoln is- 
sued his call for troops, and the war had burst 
upon the Nation in all its fury. 

Waupun for a number of years maintained 
an independent military company, called the 
Waupun Light Guard. This organization had 
in its possession forty stand of arms belonging to 
the State, and uniforms for about twenty of its 
members. On the morning of April 19, I had 
gone down to the main street of the village to buy 
a paper. While discussing with Captain Clark 
of the military company, the events of the day, an 
agent of the State, who had just arrived on the 
morning train, approached us. He read to the 
Captain a notice that his company must at once be 
filled up to the regulation standard and reported 
for active duty, or surrender its arms, to be used by 
other companies going into service. 

[3] . 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

I had not heretofore belonged to this company, 
but at once told the Captain that I would enlist, 
and aid him to fill his command to the required 
standard. A meeting was called for that night, 
and with the assistance of the patriotic people of 
the village and surrounding country, the company 
was filled up by nine o'clock of the next morning. 
A telegram was immediately sent to Madison, 
tendering service for the ninety-day call. We had 
acted promptly and swiftly, yet not quite swiftly 
enough. Twenty-three other companies had filed 
notice before us, and the quota of Wisconsin was 
full. 

Enthusiasm among the men ran high, however, 
and when on May 8 it was learned that no more 
ninety-day men could be accepted, it was deter- 
mined by vote to tender service for the entire war, 
however long that might be. Those whose busi- 
ness was such that they could not leave home for 
longer than ninety days retired, but their places 
were quickly taken by others who were anxious to 
go. We were now accepted, and assigned to the 
Third Wisconsin Volunteers and ordered to ren- 



[4] 



ENLISTMENT AND TRAINING 

devouz at Fond du Lac as soon as camp equipage 
could be furnished. 

The former officers of the company were re- 
tained, with the consent of the newly-enlisted men, 
and additional non-commissioned officers were 
elected. Among the latter I was chosen First 
Sergeant, which position I held until promoted 
to a Second-Lieutenancy. 

We boarded at the best hotels in the village, 
until ordered into camp. We were drilled several 
hours each day, and prepared for the work in store 
for us by the study of tactics and army regulations. 
At length, after what seemed to us in our im- 
patience an interminable delay, we went into 
camp at Fond du Lac on June 1 3, and for the first 
time lived in tents. We now had daily company 
and battalion drill, together with officers' school in 
tactics and sword exercise. Colonel Thomas H. 
Ruger, our commander, was a West Point gradu- 
ate, and under his efficient direction we became, 
before we had been very long in the service, as 
thoroughly drilled and disciplined as any regiment 
of regulars. Indeed we all felt sure, while we 



5] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

were still at Fond du Lac, that we were already 
veterans. 

On June 28 appeared Captain Mclntyre of the 
regular army to inspect us and muster us into the 
service of the United States. And here occurred a 
difficulty which illustrates how confidently the 
people of the North expected that the war would 
be of only short duration. Many of the best men 
in the company, who had been entirely willing to 
enlist "for the war," objected to being mustered 
in for a three-years' term of service as required by 
the instructions of the Federal Government. It was 
only after considerable persuasion that they were 
all finally induced to do so. Probably not one of 
them had the slightest idea that he would serve for 
three years, and then enlist again for another three 
years, before the great struggle would be ended. 

On the day after mustering in, uniforms were 
issued to us, consisting of light-grey trousers, 
mixed-grey blouse, and light-coloured hat. At 
first, they looked bright and fine, but they were of 
such poor quality, especially the trousers, that 
within ten days it was necessary to furnish the en- 
tire regiment with common blue workingmen*s 

[6] 



TO THE FRONT 

overalls, in order that we might with decency be 
seen upon the streets. Some money-loving patriot 
contractor had gathered in his reward from the 
State of Wisconsin by providing us with shoddy 
clothes ; and in the end it came out of the pay of 
the Regiment. 

Departure for the Front 

The preparations for departure were soon com- 
pleted, and on July 12, 1861 , we shouldered our 
knapsacks, strapped on our haversacks, containing 
several days' rations, and boarded the railroad 
cars for the seat of war in Virginia. The train of 
twenty-four coaches pulled out of the station amid 
the cheers and farewells of our many friends, who 
had gathered to see us off. All were in the best of 
spirits. It seemed to us as though we were setting 
out on a grand pleasure excursion. No thought of 
death or disaster appeared to cross the mind of 
anyone. And yet how many were saying fare- 
well, never to return! 

Our route took us through Chicago, Toledo, 
Cleveland, and Erie. Everywhere we were 
feasted and toasted by the enthusiastic people 

[7] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

along the line. At Buffalo the entire population 
seemed to have turned out to welcome the wild 
woodsmen of the Northwest. The local military 
companies of that city escorted us through the prin- 
cipal streets; speeches were made by the mayor 
and prominent citizens. We were very soon con- 
vinced that we were, indeed, heroes in embryo. 
At Williamsport, Pennsylvania, we were given 
a reception surpassing anything that had gone 
before; even now, more than fifty years after, its 
pleasant recollections still Imger in my mmd. 
Tables were set along the sidewalk in the shade 
of magnificent trees, and these tables were literally 
loaded with all the good things that could tempt 
an epicure. There were, besides, fair ladies with- 
out number to welcome us, and wait upon our 
needs. 

On July 16 we reached Hagerstown, Mary- 
land, where we went into camp, and where on the 
next day we were equipped with a complete outfit 
of muskets, ammunition, and camp utensils. The 
degree of preparation of the Federal Government 
for war at this time, may be judged from the fact 
that the muskets issued to us were old-time smooth- 

[8] 



IN MARYLAND 

bore Springfields, that had been rifled for a minie- 
ball ; they were so light, that their barrels would 
spring after the rapid firing of a dozen shots. 

Service in Maryland 

On the morning of July 1 7 we broke camp and 
started for Harpers Ferry, thirty miles distant. 
Now for the first time I began to realize what it 
was to be a soldier. I carried a knapsack laden 
with the various things that kind friends at home 
had thought necessary for a soldier's comfort, a 
haversack containing two days' rations, a musket 
with accoutrements, and forty rounds of ammu- 
nition, altogether weighing not less than fifty 
pounds. The weather was extremely hot and the 
roads very muddy, so that by the time we had gone 
fifteen miles I was entirely ready to go into camp. 

Our camp was pitched on the side of a hill. 
Our mess, in order to find as level a sleeping place 
as possible, pitched the tent in a low place, and in 
our ignorance of camp life we neglected to dig a 
ditch around it. A sudden shower came up soon 
after we had gone to sleep, and in a short time we 
found ourselves lying in a pool of water. And as 

[9] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

if this were not misfortune enough, our tent pins, 
loosened by the soaking of the ground, suddenly 
pulled out, and down came our canvas shelter. 
Subsequent experience enabled me to sleep in wet 
blankets, or in no blankets at all, just as well as 
in the best bed ; but at this time it was impossible. 
So gathering a rubber blanket around my shoul- 
ders, I found a large stone, and remained upon it 
for the rest of the night. In the morning we con- 
tinued the march toward Harpers Ferry. Our 
camp for the next night was pitched on a bit of 
comparatively level ground on the east side of 
Maryland Heights, overlooking the little village 
of Sandy Hook, and about a mile distant from 
Harpers Ferry. A more thoroughly used-up lot 
of men than ours that night, it would be hard to 
find. 

My first military duty was to guard the ford at 
Harpers Ferry and the bridges across the canal. 
The region was historic ground, and I took this 
opportunity to visit the old arsenal, then in ruins, 
and the old engine-house where John Brown had 
battled so bravely for his life. I made it a point 
also to visit JefFerson's Rock, the view from which 

[lO] 



IN MARYLAND 

Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, says is worth a 
voyage across the Atlantic to see. 

On September 1 5, while encamped in the vi- 
cinity of Darnestown, we were ordered, late in the 
day, to break camp and take the road toward the 
west. Our destination was not disclosed to us, 
and there was a great deal of speculation among 
the men as to the object of this secret and hurried 
march. The next day we found out from citizens 
along the road that we were on the way to Fred- 
erick City, the capital of Maryland. We arrived 
there late on the afternoon of the 16th, and re- 
ceived an enthusiastic welcome from the citizens 
of that loyal town. Early the next morning, guards 
were stationed on all roads leading out of town, 
and detachments of men, accompanied by detec- 
tives, proceeded to arrest the members of the 
Maryland Legislature, who had assembled there 
for the purpose of passing an ordinance of seces- 
sion. It was thus that Maryland was saved to the 
Union by the promptness of General McClellan. 
Her secessionist legislators found themselves, 
shortly after, assembled at Fort McHenry, with 
leisure to meditate upon their schemes. 

[II] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

The Regiment remained in camp at Frederick 
City until late in October. The usual monotony 
of camp life, with its drills, dress parades, and 
guard mountings, was broken only by the arrival 
of the paymaster with crisp new greenbacks of the 
first issue, and by the appearance of new blue uni- 
forms in exchange for our tattered array. To the 
old grey we bade adieu without a sigh of regret, 
and proudly donned the blue of United States 
soldiers. 

One interesting incident occurred during our 
stay here, which gave us a subject for discussion 
for several days. News had been brought to us of 
a large quantity of wheat, stored in a mill in Har- 
pers Ferry, which was about to be ground into 
flour for the use of the Confederate army. An 
expedition to capture it was soon organized under 
command of Colonel John W. Geary of the 
Twenty-Eighth Pennsylvania. It was composed 
of a detachment of two hundred men from our reg- 
iment under command of Captain Bertram, with 
similar detachments from the Twelfth Massachu- 
setts and Twenty-Eighth Pennsylvania, besides a 
section of artillery. The expedition was success- 

[12] 



IN MARYLAND 

ful; the wheat was safely removed to the north 
side of the river, and the command was ready to 
return, when a large force of the enemy appeared, 
seemingly disposed for a fight. Our men were 
quite willing to accommodate them, and moved 
up the hill toward Bolivar Heights, where the 
enemy was already strongly posted with artillery. 
Skirmishing immediately commenced. But this 
soon proved too slow for our impatient men; they 
charged the Confederate position, and soon had 
the satisfaction of seeing the last of the Southern- 
ers disappear in the direction of Charlestown, 
leaving their artillery in our hands. 

In this engagement the heaviest fighting fell to 
the detachment of the Third Wisconsin ; the piece 
of artillery was brought off by them as a trophy. 
This command also sustained all of the loss, hav- 
ing had six men killed and four wounded. The 
dead were brought back and buried with military 
honors in the cemetery at Frederick City. The 
fight had in a large measure been unnecessary, for 
the entire object of the expedition had been accom- 
plished before the enemy appeared in force; yet 



[13 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

the moral effect on the men was good, since it 
mcreased their self-confidence. 

On November 1 we rejoined the Division of 
General Banks, near Damestown, where we re- 
mained until the beginning of the next month. 
The whole Division then moved to the vicinity of 
Frederick City, our Regiment being detailed in the 
city as provost guard. We built our barracks in 
the old barrack yard, and settled down for the 
winter to the regular routine of guard duty. Two 
companies were detailed each day — one for the 
guard-house, the other to patrol the city and pre- 
serve order. The snow, rain, and mud kept the 
ground in such condition that drilling was im- 
possible ; thus we had little to do but kill time with 
chess, checkers, cards, and dominoes. The winter 
wore slowly away in this uneventful manner. In 
January news was received of the victory of Gen- 
eral Thomas at Somerset, Kentucky ; also the cap- 
ture of Roanoke Island, by General Burnside, and 
immediately after this, in February, the great vic- 
tories of General Grant at Forts Henry and Don- 
elson. The enthusiasm of the command over these 

[14] 



FOLLOWING JACKSON 

successes knew no bounds, and our impatience to 
be on the move could scarcely be restrained. 

On the trail of Stonewall JacJ^son 

At length the long-wished-for came. On the 
morning of February 25, 1862, we bade adieu to 
the barracks that had sheltered us so long, and 
boarding the cars moved to Sandy Hook, where 
we went into camp on the ground that we had left 
six months before. During the night there arrived 
a train of cars with a pontoon bridge, in charge of 
a detachment of United States engineers; and 
General McClellan came from Washington by 
special train, personally to supervise the movement. 
Our Regiment being largely composed of lumber- 
men and raftsmen from northern Wisconsin, who 
were accustomed to running rafts on the rivers of 
our State, readily made up a detail of a hundred 
experienced fellows to assist the engineers in lay- 
ing the bridge. By noon it was constructed, 1 300 
feet long, in a swift current and our Regiment, the 
advance of the army, was on its way into Dixie. 

We moved rapidly on to Bolivar Heights with- 
out seeing anything of the enemy, and halted there 

[15] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

for the night, happy in the thought that at last we 
were doing something. On February 28 a strong 
reconnoitering party of infantry, artillery, and cav- 
alry, moved forward, and without opposition occu- 
pied Charlestown. It was a village of national 
reputation at that time, for there John Brown was 
tried and hung. It was one of the hottest seces- 
sionist spots in the State, any Union sentiment that 
might have existed, being carefully concealed. 
We remained there for several days quartered in 
the various churches and public buildings, while I 
improved the opportunity to visit the many points 
of interest. On March 2 came my commission as 
Second Lieutenant of Company D. 

On March 1 1 we once more moved forward in 
the direction of Winchester, the advance guard 
skirmishing with the enemy occasionally, but meet- 
ing no serious resistance. The next morning we 
tumed out at four o'clock, and advancing through 
fields and woods for about an hour, came at length 
in sight of the entrenchments of Winchester, about 
a mile to the front. Our right and left companies 
were thrown forward as skirmishers, in preparation 

for a fight, but met with no resistance, and were 

[i6] 



FOLLOWING JACKSON 

soon clambering over the parapet of the deserted 
fort. They pushed on into the town, the remain- 
der of the Regiment following closely after, and re- 
ceived from the mayor the formal surrender of the 
municipality. It was the first surrender of this in- 
teresting city, which is said to have been captured 
and recaptured more than thirty times during the 
war. We found here an apparently strong Union 
sentiment. As our Regiment marched in with 
colors flying and band playing, the citizens were 
rejoicing everywhere over their deliverance from 
the Confederates. Innumerable handkerchiefs 
were waving to welcome us, and in some in- 
stances the stars and stripes were displayed. We 
learned from citizens that General Stonewall 
Jackson had with 6,000 men, retreated the night 
before toward Strasburgh, taking with him quite 
a number of the Union citizens of the town. 

We now went into camp a short distance south 
of Winchester, where we remained until March 
22. Continually we were hearing of the glorious 
successes of the Westem Army, and becoming 
more and more anxious that our Army of the Po- 
tomac should be given an opportunity to rival its 

2 [17] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

achievements. A number of changes in the organi- 
zation of the Division were made while we were 
here in camp. The only one of importance to us 
was the transfer of the Second Massachusetts to 
our Brigade in place of the Ninth New York, giv- 
ing us Colonel Gordon of the Second Massachu- 
setts as brigade commander in place of General 
Hamilton, our old leader. This circumstance was 
little liked at the time ; but it was the beginning of 
our friendship with the Second Massachusetts, 
that remained very close throughout the war. 

On March 22 our Division left Winchester to 
proceed, as we believed, to Manassas Junction. At 
the end of a two days' march we were camping 
for the night about three miles east of Snicker's 
Gap, in the Blue Ridge. Rumors here began to 
circulate, that there had in our absence been con- 
siderable fighting at Winchester. It was reported 
that the Confederates had been defeated, but that 
General Shields had been wounded in the battle. 
We were not, therefore, surprised, the next mom- 
ing, to be ordered to march back over the identical 
road upon which we had come. We reached 

Winchester the same night after a hard march of 

[i8] 



FOLLOWING JACKSON 

twenty-five miles, and learned from its citizens 
that there certainly had been a fight. We were 
informed that General Jackson had learned of our 
departure from Winchester, but had not heard that 
Shields was still encamped north of the city. 
Jackson had made a hasty move to recapture Win- 
chester, but had been confronted by Shields near 
Kernstown. Here the Confederates had been 
completely routed and driven beyond Strasburgh, 
with heavy loss in killed and prisoners. 

On the moming after our arrival at Winchester, 
I went out to take a view of the battle-field, and 
was able to gain some idea of what the future held 
in store for us. The wounded had already been 
cared for, and some of the dead had been buried ; 
but sixteen of our dead remained on the field, and 
something over three hundred of the enemy's. In 
one part of the battle-ground, covered with small 
timber and underbrush, where the enemy had for 
a time made a stubborn resistance, scarcely a bush 
or a tree but showed the marks of bullets at a 
height of from three to six feet from the ground. 
In my inexperience, I then wondered how any man 

could have lived in that thicket; and in truth, not 

[19] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

many did live there long, for the ground was 
strewn with the dead. 

Returning to camp at noon, I found that we 
were again under orders to march. We started 
out near sundown, moving that night to Strasburgh, 
and found the bridge over Cedar Creek, two miles 
this side of Strasburgh, destroyed. It had been 
burned by Jackson at the time of his first retreat 
from Winchester. This precaution had in the re- 
cent fight proved to be his undoing, for in his hasty 
flight before Shield's Division, his army, which 
up to that place had preserved good order, was 
completely disorganized and suffered a loss of two 
hundred prisoners. 

We remained at Strasburgh for several days. 
During that time I was detailed on a general court 
martial to try some soldiers who had been arrested 
for depredations on private property. Their of- 
fence, as I was informed, consisted in stealing 
chickens and honey, against which stringent orders 
were at that time in force. The court convened in 
all dignity, and sent word to the General that it 
was ready to try the culprits. In a few minutes 
Adjutant Wilkins appeared, presented the com- 

[20] 



FOLLOWING JACKSON 

pliments of the General and informed us that the 
prisoners had escaped. We were requested to ad- 
journ until they had been recaptured. As that 
court was never reconvened, it may be taken for 
granted that the prisoners were never recaptured. 

On the first day of April we again moved for- 
ward, driving the enemy in such haste that they 
left tlieir dinners cooking on the fires. Several 
times during the day, they opened on us with artil- 
lery, but a few shots from our battery would 
quickly send them on again. On the 17th we 
made another attempt to get at Jackson's army, 
by moving one Division up the Shenandoah River 
on the west side, and the other into New Market 
from the southwest. Our Regiment was with the 
latter Division. After fording a river up to our 
armpits, and finding it as cold as melting snow 
from the mountains could make it, we found that 
the enemy had again shown his heels and once 
more was away to the south. 

During the next month we followed the retreat- 
ing army of General Jackson to Harrisonburg, 
and then came back to Strasburgh. Here we 
made some little show of fortifying; but in the 

[21] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

main, we were as easy and unconcerned as though 
the war was over. And in fact, the good news 
received from all quarters, and the orders from the 
War Department to stop all recruiting, led us to 
believe that the contest was nearly ended. In 
camp, bets were freely offered, with no takers, 
that the Regiment would be back in Wisconsin by 
September. I remember writing to a friend, about 
this time, that my part of the work of suppressing 
the Rebellion seemed to be about done. How 
sadly were we mistaken ! 

The Tables Turned 

We had a rude awakening from our dream of 
peace. While we had been idling in fancied se- 
curity. General Jackson had gathered a large force 
with which to overwhelm us. Our first intimation 
of trouble came on the night of May 23, when we 
were hastily called to defend our railroad bridge 
toward Front Royal against the attack of the en- 
emy. The next day we were in full retreat toward 
Winchester. 

When about half way to Winchester, the en- 
emy, who had crossed from Front Royal, attacked 

[22] 



PURSUED BY JACKSON 

our train in the front. The Fifth Connecticut and 
Twenty-Eighth New York were hurried forward, 
with the rest of the command following, and the 
road was soon cleared. But this had hardly been 
accomplished, when the enemy attacked in the 
rear, and cut off about fifty wagons. At this new 
danger a halt was called, and with two regiments 
and a battery, General Banks hastened to the rear. 
The lost wagons were recovered, but the animals 
having all been driven off or killed, it was neces- 
sary to bum the vehicles. Among the wagons 
destroyed was one containing all the rations and 
cooking utensils of my Company. We succeeded 
at night in securing a few crackers from some of 
the more fortunate companies, but most of my men 
went supperless to bed. Moreover, there were 
prospects for a lively fight in the morning. 

I was awakened early by the picket-firing, 
which commenced at daybreak, and found myself 
thoroughly chilled from sleeping on the bare 
ground, without blankets or shelter. However, 
both hunger and cold were soon forgotten in the 
more pressing demands upon our attention. The 
position chosen by General Banks for the night s 

[23] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

bivouac was probably the worst that could have 
been found between Strasburgh and the Potomac 
River. With seven regiments of infantry we oc- 
cupied a small field lying between the outskirts of 
the city and the hills on the south. The enemy 
were in possession of the hills, where they had 
erected considerable fortifications. Colonel 
Gordon's Brigade was on the right of the road; 
that of Colonel Donnelly was on the left — all fac- 
ing the enemy. 

Our skirmishers were promptly advanced, and 
commenced firing on the enemy in their entrench- 
ments. Supported by a battery in our rear, which 
fired over our heads into their position, we were 
maintaining a lively fire, when suddenly it was 
discovered that the enemy was passing around 
upon our right, with the evident intention of getting 
in our rear. The Twenty-Seventh Indiana and 
Twenty-Ninth Pennsylvania were hurriedly 
moved to the right, but had hardly reached their 
position when they were furiously assailed both 
in front and flank by the advancing Confederates. 
The Twenty-Ninth Pennsylvania received the first 
brunt of the attack, and soon was in full retreat. 

[24] 



PURSUED BY JACKSON 

The Twenty-Seventh Indiana came in for the 
next attack, and they also fell back about a quar- 
ter of a mile to some stone walls on the outskirts of 
the city. Our Regiment and the Second Massa- 
chusetts, which as yet had scarcely been engaged, 
were now faced about and marched to the rear, 
until we reached the fenced lots on the outskirts of 
the town. Here we were halted, and opened fire 
on the enemy, who had appeared in large numbers 
upon our front. 

We had soon checked the Confederates im- 
mediately before us. I was looking around to see 
how things were going with the others, when I be- 
came aware that Company F and a portion of my 
Company were entirely alone. It appears that 
orders had been sent around by General Banks to 
fall back to the north side of the city ; but we, be- 
ing separated from the rest of the Regiment by an 
intervening street, had not heard them. There we 
were, fighting the whole Southern army by our- 
selves ! I hastened to Captain Limbocker to call his 
attention to our position. He saw the situation at a 
glance, and left-facing the companies, marched 
double-quick through the back streets toward the 

[25] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

main road of the city. By this time our men had 
discovered that they were in a close place, and 
moved rapidly. Just as w^e reached the main street 
and turned north, I stopped to speak to the Cap- 
tain, w^ho was in the rear. As I did so, I saw^ that 
the w^hole street behind us to the south vs^as sw^arm- 
ing with Confederate soldiers, not fifty feet away. 
They were in such confusion, however, that it was 
impossible for them to fire, and in fact they did not 
seem to try. From that point until we were clear 
of the street, it was simply a foot race, in which we 
were the winners. They evidently soon tired of 
the race, for before we were clear of the street they 
had some artillery in position, and shot and shell 
were flying harmlessly over our heads. 

We afterwards learned that Colonel Don- 
nelly's Brigade, which at the beginning of the 
fight had been posted out of our sight on the left 
of the road, had also, like our Brigade, been as- 
sailed in front and in the flank; and that they also, 
had soon been forced back in full retreat. 

We rejoined our Regiment in the line, without 
further trouble. From our position we could see 

the enemy on the hills west of us, endeavoring by 

[26] 



PURSUED BY JACKSON 

rapid marching to reach the road in our rear. We 
stopped only long enough to gather up our men, 
who had become scattered in coming through the 
streets of the city, and then moved on toward 
Martinsburg. We did no more fighting and no 
more running. All of General Banks's command 
was ahead of us except two sections of artillery, 
and detachments of the First Vermont and First 
Michigan Cavalry, which protected our rear and 
kept the enemy at a respectful distance. During 
the retreat, General Banks did all that lay in the 
power of any man to bring off his men without 
loss, giving personal attention to the posting of the 
rear guard. 

I suppose it was about eight o'clock in the morn- 
ing when our Regiment began its march to Mar- 
tinsburg, twenty-three miles distant. We arrived 
there at about five in the afternoon, without hav- 
ing stopped for dinner, and without rest. Indeed, 
we had no dinner to stop for, and the pursuing 
enemy were not inclined to let us rest. We ex- 
pected to stop at Martinsburg, but General Banks 
did not deem it safe, so after a rest of a half hour 

[27] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

we were ordered to proceed to* Williamsport, 
Maryland, twelve miles farther on. 

We arrived at the Potomac, opposite Williams- 
port, about ten o'clock that night, tired, hungry, 
and in no very good humor over the results of our 
two days' work. We managed to secure some 
salt pork and a few crackers for supper, after 
which we wrapped ourselves in our overcoats, and 
took such rest as could be obtained, amid the noise 
of men and teams crossing the ferry, and the calls 
of stragglers who were coming in and seeking their 
regiments. At three o'clock in the morning we 
were aroused, and ordered to the ferry. About 
an hour later we were across the Potomac on the 
Maryland side, drawn up in line of battle and 
waiting for the enemy. 

General Banks was untiring in his efforts to 
bring our train over safely, even riding into the 
water to save mules that had lost their footing, and 
were in danger of drowning. He made a speech 
to the men, telling them that the enemy had ad- 
vanced no farther than Martinsburg, and that 
20,000 men had been sent to cut off their retreat. 

The roll call taken at this time showed that 

[28] 



AGAIN IN VIRGINIA 

eleven men of Company D were missing. Four of 
these came in the next day, having taken a dif- 
ferent route than ours through the mountains. 
Four others turned up in Libby prison. Most of 
our men had thrown away their knapsacks, some 
their haversacks and canteens, and sixteen had lost 
their guns. 

We remained at Williamsport until June 10, 
receiving new supplies of camp and garrison equip- 
age to replace those that had been lost or de- 
stroyed. 

We were rejoiced during this time to hear that 
the Confederates had had the tables turned on 
them; that they were being severely pressed be- 
tween Shields's and Fremont's armies; and that 
all the baggage and prisoners that they had cap- 
tured from us had been retaken, with a good deal 
more besides. 

On the morning of June 1 we again crossed 
into Virginia, and marched to Front Royal with- 
out interruption. We passed through Winchester 
on the 12th without stopping, however, for the 
General seemed to fear that our men would burn 

[29] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

the town in return for the treachery of its citizens 
during our retreat. Both men and women had 
fired on us from the windows, and had poured 
down scalding water as we passed through the 
streets. It was even reported to us that women 
had entered the hospitals, and shot sick men in 
their beds ; but this last was later contradicted. 

We remained at Front Royal until July 6, dur- 
ing which time important changes were made in 
commanding officers. All the troops in northern 
and western Virginia were united under General 
John Pope — the three army corps being com- 
manded by McDowell, Sigel, and Banks. A 
movement was made to concentrate the three corps 
in one locality east of the Blue Ridge, in the ac- 
complishment of which we were marched over the 
mountains at Chester Gap on the hottest day I ever 
experienced. Eight men of my company were sun- 
struck that afternoon, resulting fatally in one case, 
and in permanent disability in the others. We 
camped at night on the headwaters of the Rappa- 
hannock, in a country described as naturally poor, 
and entirely ruined by cultivation. There was 

[30] 



POPES MISTAKE 

one exception to this, however, in the abundance 
of fruit. There were cherries and blackberries in 
plenty for everybody. 

While in camp near Little Washington, the un- 
fortunate, bombastic orders of General Pope were 
published to the army; unfortunate, because they 
incited a degree of contempt for him which 
greatly impaired his usefulness. Many of his 
highflown phrases, such as "shame and disaster 
lurking in the rear," afforded a fine opportunity 
for the wits of the army, when, not three weeks 
later, his headquarters wagon and his personal 
baggage were captured by the enemy. About 
the first of August he arrived at the front, and on 
the next Sunday reviewed General Banks's corps. 
Pope's fine appearance, soldierly bearing, and evi- 
dent knowledge of his business did much to in- 
spire respect, and might even have made him 
popular, if we could only have forgotten that fool 
address to the army. He inaugurated, also, many 
real reforms. I don't know whether he was en- 
tirely responsible for it; but under his command 
the cavalry began to be of real service to the army, 

[31] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

and the men could no longer ask, *'Who ever saw 
a dead cavalryman?" 

A t Cedar Mountain 

On August 7 w^e broke camp again and 
marched to Culpeper Court House. Here we 
learned that the enemy had been seen in consider- 
able force near Cedar Mountain. We were not 
surprised, therefore, on the morning after our ar- 
rival, to be hastily formed and ordered off toward 
Cedar Mountain. We arrived at Cedar Run in 
the early afternoon, and found Crawford's 
Brigade of our Division already skirmishing with 
the enemy. Our Brigade immediately formed in 
line of battle on the right of the road, and threw 
out its skirmish line. At about four o'clock, my 
Company and four others were moved forward to 
reenforce the skirmishers. 

We had crossed Cedar Run Creek, and were 
waiting for further orders in a heavy stand of tim- 
ber, when Captain Wilkins of General Williams*s 
staff rode up, enquiring for General Banks. Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Crane informed him that we had 
seen nothing of General Banks since we entered 

[32] 



CEDAR MOUNTAIN 

the woods. Captain Wilkins then explained to us 
that General Augur was meeting with consider- 
able success on the left, and that General Craw- 
ford desired our Brigade to join his in a charge 
upon the right. The movement required the sanc- 
tion of General Banks, who was, however, no- 
where to be found, and time was so pressing that 
he almost felt justified in giving the order himself, 
as coming from General Banks. Captain Wilkins 
then turned and rode off, but had not been gone two 
minutes, and had not, I am confident, seen General 
Banks, when he returned, and gave Colonel Ruger 
orders to assemble the Regiment on the right of 
Crawford's Brigade and charge the enemy's lines. 
Our skirmish line was now called in; we 
formed in line of battle, and marched through the 
woods as rapidly as the nature of the ground 
would permit. We had soon come to its edge, 
and found before us an open field about a hundred 
and twenty-five yards across, separated from us 
by a rail fence. Immediately beyond the field, 
rose the thickly-timbered slope of the mountain; 
and there too, stationed directly in our front, was 

3 [33] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

a battery of artillery. Of infantry, there were 
none to be seen. 

We hurried forward, pushed down the fence, 
and without stopping to reform our line started on 
a run for that battery. I noticed as we went, that 
Crawford's Brigade had not yet arrived, and that 
we were alone in the field. Suddenly, from the 
side of the slope and from the bushes and rocks on 
our front, arose the Confederate infantry, and 
poured into our ranks the most destructive musketry 
fire that I have ever experienced. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Crane was killed, and fell from his horse 
at the first volley. Major Scott was wounded, 
being carried off by his horse. Captain Hawley, 
of the company on our right, was wounded, and a 
third of his men were killed or wounded at the 
same time. The right began to fall back, some of 
the men helping off wounded comrades, others 
loading and firing at the enemy as they slowly re- 
treated to the woods. On the left, all three of my 
companies were standing up to their work without 
flinching. My Company, though suffering se- 
verely, were fighting like veterans. We did not 
seem to be gaining any advantage, however, and 

[34] 



CEDAR MOUNTAIN 

shortly the order came to fall back to the woods. 
My Company, and that of Captain O'Brien on the 
left, were the last to leave the field. 

Under the shelter of the woods we reformed our 
companies. I still had about twenty-five men, 
Captain O'Brien about as many more, and a num- 
ber of men from Company F had joined me on the 
right. We at once returned to the edge of the 
woods, the Colonel leading back the two left com- 
panies, and opened fire on the enemy, who was 
preparing to cross the open field. We soon were 
sent to the right, however, in order to make room 
for the Tenth Mame, and saw no more active 
fighting for that day. At twilight, when we were 
threatened upon our right flank, we returned across 
Cedar Run to the ground from which we had 
started. 

Of the 8,000 men that were engaged in this 
battle, we lost about 2,000 in killed and wounded. 

The loss in our Regiment was 117, mostly from 
the six companies that started in the charge on the 
battery. Lieutenant-Colonel Crane was killed, 
and Captain O'Brien mortally wounded. O'Brien 
had at the first charge been severely wounded in 

[35] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

the thigh. When we retreated to the woods, he 
had showed me that his shoe was full of blood. 
He had, however, returned to the fight after bind- 
ing up his wound with his handkerchief, and had 
been killed at the edge of the woods. My Com- 
pany had, out of forty-five men engaged, lost two 
killed and fourteen wounded. Of these all but 
two of the wounded had been struck in the field 
where we first drew the enemy's fire, and in a 
space of time which I am confident did not exceed 
three minutes. 

As some 30,000 or 40,000 troops were in the 
vicinity, who had not fired a shot, I supposed that 
the battle would be renewed in the morning; but it 
was not. The corps of General Sigel and Mc- 
Dowell were moved to the front, but occupied 
themselves only with gathering up the wounded. 
On the 1 1 th the enemy sent in a flag of truce, 
asking for an armistice to bury the dead. This 
was readily granted, for we also had still on the 
battle-field many dead and severely wounded. On 
the 1 2th it was found that the Confederates had 
taken advantage of the truce to retreat during the 
night. Indeed, they retired in such haste that they 

[36] 



CEDAR MOUNTAIN 

left large numbers of their wounded in our hands. 
General Sigel pursued them to the Rapidan, 
while our Corps returned to Culpeper for a much- 
needed rest. 

A great deal of criticism has been heaped upon 
all those who were prominently connected with 
this battle. Banks has been assailed for fighting 
the battle at all. It has seemed to many, an inex- 
cusable piece of folly that he should have ordered 
the attack in such apparent ignorance of the posi- 
tion and strength of the enemy, and so near sun- 
down that even if he had been successful, he could 
not have reaped any advantage. I have, how- 
ever, doubted whether he ever made the order ; but 
when once it had been made, lie was obliged to 
put in his whole command or abandon everything 
that had been gained. Captain Wilkins who 
brought the order for our charge, later wandered 
into the Confederate lines while carrying orders, 
and I never heard of him again. 

Pope has been criticized for not seeing that 
Banks was properly supported; but all the evi- 
dence obtainable shows that Pope did not wish or 
expect to fight a battle at that time. McDowell 

[37] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

has been criticized with particular bitterness for not 
going to the aid of Banks, and charges of treachery 
were freely made against him. It was quite gen- 
erally believed, even in his own command, that 
McDowell had no heart in the cause; and this 
belief — which later gained public expression in 
the dying statement of Colonel Brodhead of the 

First Michigan Cavalry, that he "died a victim to 
the incompetency of Pope and the treachery of 
McDowell" — caused his retirement as a corps 
commander. 

The Army retreats Northward 

We remained at Culpeper until August 18, 
when we were aroused at midnight and started 
on the road to the Rappahannock. We crossed 
over on the next day and went into camp about 
half a mile from the river. During all that day 
and night the army of General Pope was streaming 
across the Rappahannock to the north side, only a 
portion of his cavalry still remaining to the south. 
There was a great deal of speculation among the 
men as to the reason for this unexpected retrogade 
movement. It was rumored that General Mc- 

[38] 



RETREATING NORTHWARD 

Clellan had been compelled to withdraw his army 
from the Peninsula, and that General Lee, re- 
leased from the defence of Richmond, was march- 
ing our way. For once, rumor was correct. It 
was not many days before the whole of Lee's army 
was hunting to find an unguarded point at which 
to cross the river. 

About noon on the day after our crossing, I was 
watching the movements of some of our cavalry 
who still remained on the other side of the river. 
I was standing on the top of one of the highest 
knolls in the vicinity, from which I had a splendid 
view of the country for a long distance southward. 
For nearly two miles the land was clear of timber 
or fences or any obstacle which could impede the 
movements of cavalry. Observing that our cav- 
alry seemed to be coming back at rather a livelier 
pace than usual, I noticed what appeared to be 
either a large regiment or a small brigade of Con- 
federate cavalry emerge from the woods to the 
south of the plain. They formed their lines and 
moved to the attack. 

Our men, also, were soon in motion. As they 
approached each other the two bodies increased 

[39] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

their pace, until both seemed to be moving at full 
speed. They met with a jar, and for some moments 
it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe. 
There could only be distinctly seen the flashing of 
sabres in the sunlight as blows were struck and 
parried, and the puffs of smoke from revolvers and 
carbines. For ten minutes or more the stirring 
fight went on without any apparent advantage to 
either side. But now another regiment of our 
cavalry, which had been out of sight up the river 
at the beginning of the fight, came down upon the 
Confederates at a hard gallop. It was but a 
minute before the latter were retreating back to the 
timber, perhaps hurried a little by a few shells 
from one of our shore batteries. A little later, I 
learned that our cavalry had taken about sixty 
prisoners. 

On the night of August 22 the enemy were ex- 
pected to make an attempt to cross the Rappahan- 
nock at Beverly Ford, where I was stationed on 
picket duty. During the night, however, the river 
rose almost ten feet as the result of heavy rains in 
the mountains. By morning, it was so raging a tor- 
rent that crossing was impossible. As soon as it was 

[40] 



RETREATING NORTHWARD 

light, the enemy opened fire on us with fourteen 
pieces of artillery. I had already withdrawn my 
men from the river bank and stationed them where 
they could pour a heavy fire upon the Confed- 
erates, should they attempt to lay a bridge. I was 
therefore in a good position to watch at leisure the 
artillery duel which ensued. For two hours the 
shot flew back and forth across the stream, with- 
out, however, great damage to our side. At the 
end of that time the Confederates apparently had 
had enough and withdrew from their position. 

The succeeding days were passed in hard 
marching, with hot weather, no tents or blankets, 
short rations, and a poor country to forage in. The 
enemy occasionally made demonstration as though 
to cross at the fords of the Rappahannock, but all 
the while moving up toward the mountains. On 
the evening of August 27, while we were in camp 
near Warrenton Junction, rumors began to circu- 
late that they had appeared in large force at 
Manassas Junction, and were threatening to cut 
off our retreat to Washington. The next moming 
we were called out at three o'clock, and soon after 
were on the road to the Junction. The corps of 

[41] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

Generals Heintzelman and Fitz-John Porter, 
which had been marching toward Warrenton, had 
also been turned back and were directly in our ad- 
vance. We marched rapidly to Kettle River, a 
small stream about five miles from the Junction, 
where we were detailed to guard a train of ninety 
cars loaded with ammunition and provisions for our 
army. Here we learned that the enemy had on 
the previous day captured and destroyed at the 
Junction over a hundred and fifty cars loaded with 
supplies, but had in the morning encountered 
Hooker's advance division near Kettle Run, and 
had been driven with considerable loss beyond the 
Junction. We found on our arrival at Kettle 
Run, tangible evidence of the morning's fight, for 
a good many of the dead were still lying around. 
Cannonading commenced early on the morning 
after our arrival, in the direction of Manassas, and 
continued all day. It was evident that a severe bat- 
tle was in progress. Reports of our successes were 
continually coming in; we appeared to be driving 
the enemy at all points. It was said that the Con- 
federates were surrounded on three sides, and 
hopes were strong that they would be captured be- 

[42] 



MANASSAS 

fore the main body of their army came up. The 
next morning, the battle was still in progress al- 
though it seemed to be farther away than it had 
been before. The most encouraging reports contin- 
ued to reach us, and at night General Pope was 
credited with having said that our troops had won 
a complete victory. 

While the battle was m progress, we had been 
occupied in rebuilding the bridge across Kettle 
Run, which the enemy had destroyed on the first 
day of their raid. We had it completed, and our 
train of cars moved across to Bristoe Station by the 
morning of the second day of the battle. We 
bivouacked that night north of Broad Run, happy 
in the thought that our troops had indeed van- 
quished the foe. 

The next morning we were ordered to return to 
Bristoe. As we approached the station, dense 
clouds of smoke were rolling upwards from the 
place where we had left our cars. This gave us 
notice that the reports of victory had been false. 
The fact was, that the left wing of Pope's army 
had been driven back the night before, and it had 
been necessary to burn the cars in order to prevent 

[43] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

their falling into the hands of the enemy. It had 
been possible to save only the supplies with which 
they were loaded. Our Corps, moreover, having 
received no notice of the reverse, was now in grave 
danger of being cut off from the remainder of the 
army. We managed, however, by rapid march- 
ing over a circuitous route to reach the north side of 
Bull Run in safety. 

The next day we marched to a short distance 
beyond CenterviUe. Here we were halted, and 
stood in the road on our arms during a driving rain, 
while the battle of Chantilly was being fought 
only a short distance to the north. We remained 
standing in the road — or at least were supposed to 
be standing — all that night, the rain pouring down 
in torrents most of the time. After darkness had 
set in, however, the men quietly began to disap- 
pear into the neighboring woods, and soon I alone 
of all my Company was actually standing in the 
road. I was not greatly troubled over the breach 
of orders, for I knew that at the first intimation of 
danger every man would be in his place. I too 
found for myself as dry a place as possible, and 
wrapping my rubber coat about me, tried to secure 

[44] 



CHANTILLY 

a snatch of much-needed sleep. But ! soon awoke 
so thoroughly wet and cold that further slumber 
was out of the question. I thereupon sought a fire 
that some soldiers had built, and endeavored to 
extract a bit of comfort from its friendly heat. 
Just as I was beginning to feel its warmth, a num- 
ber of staff officers came along and ordered the 
blaze extinguished, for, said they, it was against 
the orders of General Banks. I stepped back into 
the darkness so as not to be recognized, concluding 
that if General Banks wanted that fire put out, he 
would get no help from me. The men standing 
near, however, kicked the burning brands apart as 
though to put it out, and the officers passed on. 
But they were not fifty feet away before the fire 
had been rekindled and was again dispensing 
cheer. This scene was repeated at frequent inter- 
vals until daylight, the fire continuing to bum in 
spite of all orders. 

That morning we took the road about nine, and 
marched until midnight. On the morning after, 
we found that we were within the fortifications of 
Alexandria. Two days later we crossed the 
Potomac at Georgetown, and went into camp at 

[45] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

Tennal ley town, D. C. Our wagons and camp 
equipage had preceded us. A mail also was 
awaiting us, the first that we had received since 
leaving Culpeper Court House. 

We now had leisure to reflect upon our situa- 
tion. It was indeed humiliating. Here we were, 
after six months of campaigning, back again at the 
point where we had started. The Grand Army 
of the Potomac forced to seek the shelter of the 
fortifications of Washington! The actual fight- 
ing had usually been in our favor. Why was it, 
then, that we had been forced back? We be- 
lieved that the answer lay entirely in the fact that 
we had been outgeneralled. We felt that Pope 
and McDowell were the Jonahs who should go 
overboard. And overboard they went, not to be 
heard of again during the war. The reappoint- 
ment of McClellan to command was everywhere 
received with pleasure. So far as my acquaint- 
ance went, the feeling was unanimous in his favor. 

For several days we remained in camp enjoying 
the luxury of tents and beds after our strenuous 
experiences on the march. New regiments were 
in the meantime assigned to the old brigades. 

[46] 



FORWARD 

Ours received the Thirteenth New Jersey and the 
One Hundred Seventh New York, with a new 
corps commander in the person of General Mans- 
field. 

Moving Toward the Enemy 

On September 5 it was definitely rumored in 
camp that the enemy had crossed into Maryland 
by way of Edward's Ferry. All of the Army of 
the Potomac were soon after moving up the river 
toward Darnestown, where a defensive position 
was taken and the enemy's movements awaited. 
There were no further developments until the 
1 0th, when an order came from General McClel- 
lan to store in Washington all of the officers' bag- 
gage and the company tents and property, and 
turn over the teams to be used in hauling provisions 
and ammunition. This looked more like business 
than anything we had yet seen. 

The next morning we began to move in earnest, 
passing through Darnestown, and on toward Fred- 
erick City. On the 1 2th we made a long march 
to Ijamsville, where we heard from one party of 
citizens that the enemy were evacuating Frederick 

[47] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

City, and from another that they were preparing to 
fight us at the crossing of the Monocacy River. 
In the morning, we were early on the road, march- 
ing rapidly to the ford of the Monocacy, and 
crossing without trouble. As we approached 
Frederick, we could hear the firing of the advance 
of Burnside's Corps, as they were driving the rear 
guard of the retreating enemy from the passes of 
the Catoctin Mountains, about five miles west of 
the city. Over 800 prisoners were sent back that 
day, mostly stragglers and deserters, who had 
soldiered as long as they wished. 

That night we camped near Frederick City, a 
large portion of our Regiment taking advantage of 
the opportunity to visit old friends and acquaint- 
ances in that place. We had been there so long 
during the past year that it seemed to us almost 
like home. The Confederates had been m pos- 
session for nearly a week, and many stories were 
told of the good people who had displayed their 
loyalty under adverse circumstances. The real 
heroine of the town was old Barbara Fritchie, who 
had kept a Union flag waving from her window 
during all the time of the Confederate occupation. 

[48] 



SOUTH MOUNTAIN 

Her name has been immortalized by Whittier. I 
know that in recent years it has been said that no 
such person ever Hved, and that the flag was not 
displayed. But I heard the story told within 
twenty- four hours after the Confederate army had 
left Frederick, from persons who knew the circum- 
stances, and I am going to believe it until there is 
more positive proof than I have yet seen, that it is 
not true. 

Battle of South Mountain 

We were ready to march by four o'clock on the 
morning of the 1 4th. But we might as well have 
stayed in camp until seven. The road west from 
Frederick was a fine, broad turnpike, wide enough 
for two or three wagons abreast, but it was now 
completely choked with the ammunition and pro- 
vision wagons of the troops in advance. Even 
after we did finally get started, and were clear of 
the town, we had to march through the fields and 
woods on either side of the road. 

When we reached the top of the Catoctin Moun- 
tains, we could hear the sound of artillery and 
musketry fire on the next mountain ridge beyond. 

4 [49] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

Occasionally we could even catch a glimpse of the 
lines of our troops as they moved up the slopes to 
assault the position of the enemy. We w^ere now^ 
rapidly marched down the mountain and turned 
off by a circuitous route to the right, in order to 
strike the enemy on the left flank. Before we 
could reach their position, however, it had already 
been carried by assault, and the enemy had taken 
advantage of the darkness to make good their re- 
treat. Such was the battle of South Mountain. 

We now countermarched to the turnpike near 
Middletown, where we went into camp at one 
o'clock in the morning. We had been on the road 
for twenty-two consecutive hours, most of the time 
climbing over rocks and through brush on the 
mountain side. Again we were on the march, at 
eight o'clock the next morning, crossing South 
Mountain as we had crossed the Catoctin Moun- 
tains, with the wagon train occupying the road and 
the troops in the woods along the side. We passed 
through Boonsborough in the afternoon, and by 
night had reached nearly to Keedysville. 

The road was strewn with the muskets and 
other accoutrements of the enemy fleeing from 

[50] 



ANTIETAM 

South Mountain, together with a great deal of 
plunder that they had gathered in Maryland. 
There was every indication that they had retreated 
in a state of demoralization. The houses in Boons- 
borough and the vicinity were filled with their 
wounded, and we were constantly meeting squads 
of from twenty to one hundred prisoners who were 
being sent back from the front. Occasional artil- 
lery firing in the front seemed to indicate that we 
were being waited for not far ahead. 

Battle of Antietam 

On the morning of the 1 6th we moved forward 
to a position behind a range of low hills near An- 
tietam Creek, and there we remained until night, 
undisturbed save by occasional shots from the 
enemy's batteries, posted in the hills on the op- 
posite side of the creek. The remainder of our 
army kept coming up all day, taking position as 
they arrived, until at night it was understood that 
they were all at hand with the exception of Frank- 
lin's Corps, which had gone to the relief of Har- 
pers Ferry. At about nine o'clock we were 
called up and moved across Antietam Creek, close 

[51] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

to the enemy's lines, where we lay down to secure 
such rest as we might in preparation for the next 
day's fight. General Hooker's Corps lay in posi- 
tion, just in front of us. 

It was reported that night that Harpers Ferry 
had been surrendered by Colonel Miles without a 
struggle, and when the relieving force of General 
Franklin was within three miles. It was rumored 
also that Miles had been shot by the men of his 
own command when they learned that they had 
been surrendered. 

We were awakened soon after daylight by the 
sound of heavy cannonading in the front. It had 
been raining durmg the night, but now the sky 
was clear and the sun shining. The men hurried 
into the ranks, and the Corps formed in close col- 
umn by companies. We moved a short distance to 
the right, then sat down to await developments. 
As battery after battery came into action, the artil- 
lery firing continually increased in rapidity, until 
for a few minutes the roar would be continuous. 
Then there would be a lull, and the sharp crack 
of the musketry would be heard, as the skirmishers 
pushed forward through the timber. Now the 
. [52] 



ANTIETAM 

scattering musketry fire increased into crashing vol- 
leys; as more and more troops became engaged, 
the volleys developed into one continuous roar, like 
the roll of distant thunder. 

Within a few minutes we became aware by 
sight, as well as by sound, that a bloody battle was 
in progress ; a constant stream of wounded men was 
coming back to the field hospital in the rear. 
Many were but slightly wounded and still clung to 
their muskets as they hurried back to have their 
wounds dressed. They would stop on their way, 
for a moment, hastily to tell how they were *'driv- 
ing the Johnnies" in the front. Others, more seri- 
ously hurt, were being helped along by comrades; 
while others, still more unfortunate, lay silent on 
stretchers as they were borne back by ambulance 
men and musicians. Soon, a number of ammuni- 
tion wagons which had ventured too close to the 
front, came dashing by us to seek shelter behind a 
neighboring hill. They were followed shortly 
after by a dismounted cannon being dragged back 
for repairs. Now came a temporary lull in the 
musketry. The thunder of the artillery increased 
as if in compensation; but rising above all came 

[53] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

the cheers of our comrades In the front, announcing 
that the opening engagement had ended in victory. 

The pause in the musketry was of short dura- 
tion. The enemy, largely reenforced, soon at- 
tacked in their turn, making desperate efforts to re- 
gain the ground that they had lost. Upon our 
side, more troops to the right and left came into 
action, and the battle was soon raging again with 
redoubled fury. The enemy in our immediate 
front seemed to have largely increased their artil- 
lery, and scattering shot and shell were dropping 
around us. 

At length our First Brigade was sent into action. 
We soon followed, at double-quick, in close col- 
umn by companies. Passing rapidly through the 
woods, we emerged upon the field a little north- 
east of the old Dunkard church, and our Regiment 
deployed in line. The manoeuvre was executed 
as though we had been on a parade ground instead 
of a battle-field. I have seldom seen it better done. 

Immediately on our right and about one hun- 
dred yards to the front, was posted one of our bat- 
teries of twelve-pound brass guns. It had evi- 
dently been in action for some time. All of its 

[54] 



ANTIETAM 

horses were killed or crippled, and the gunners 
were just falling back before the advancing Con- 
federate line of battle. To the left of the battery, 
and stretching off to the woods directly in our 
front, stood the remnants of a brigade, still stub- 
bornly contesting the advance of the enemy's in- 
fantry. Our Regiment moved forward to the bat- 
tery, the artillerymen at the same time returning to 
their guns. The Second Massachusetts took 
position to the right ; the Twenty-Seventh Indiana 
came up on the left. 

The Confederate infantry moved steadily 
across the corn-field, while the decimated brigade 
in its path fell back, step by step. We were 
obliged to wait before commencing fire, until they 
could be moved out of the way. Then we opened 
fire from one end of the line to the other. The 
enemy were handicapped by the fact that they 
were moving diagonally across our front, instead 
of directly toward us, and our fire was terribly 
severe, so it was not long before they broke and 
ran back to the woods. Immediately, however, 
another line was coming up, this time confrontmg 

[55] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

us squarely. And now commenced the work in 
earnest. 

Our position was in a stubble-field. The ground 
in front of us sloped gently downward, so that we 
were fifteen or twenty feet higher than the enemy. 
About a hundred yards in our front was a rail 
fence, beyond which lay another open field. The 
previous day, that field had contained a luxuriant 
growth of ripening corn; now it was cut by bullets 
and trampled by men and horses, until scarce a 
vestige of the crop remained. 

For a time, the enemy came on rapidly, without 
firing a shot. Their right, like our left, was "in 
the air" and about even with us. They were as 
gallant fellows as ever moved to an assault. One 
could but admire the steady courage with which 
they approached us; great gaps being made in 
their lines at every discharge of our grape- and 
canister-laden twelve-pounders, and our bullets 
also wore them away at every step. A portion of 
these stern fighters reached the fence; none came 
farther. They there stopped and opened fire on 
our lines. From our higher ground we could see 
the steady stream of their wounded being helped 

[56] 



ANTIETAM 

to the rear. Still they held on, returning fire for 
fire; and we too were suffering terribly. At 
length the Confederates had been reduced to a 
mere handful; it was hopeless to hold on any 
longer, and they fell back toward the woods. But 
before they had reached there, another of their 
brigades was coming up behmd them. The new- 
comers, however, halted and opened fire at nearly 
double the distance that their predecessors 
had taken. Soon they also began to waver, then 
suddenly broke, and joined their comrades in the 
flight to the woods. 

As they all disappeared toward the timber, 
General Hooker rode up and ordered us to fix 
bayonets and pursue. With a whoop and hurrah 
our Regiment and the Twenty-Seventh Indiana 
started down through the corn-field. General 
Hooker himself leading like a captain. It was 
such traits as this that made him popular, even 
with those who did not think him fit for high com- 
mand. We had passed fairly into the corn-field, 
which was literally strewn with the dead bodies 
of Confederates, when a staff officer rode up, and 
ordered us to get out of the way, for General Sum- 

[57] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

ner wished to put in a division at that point. This 
was all that prevented us from assauhing a position 
with about a hundred and fifty men, which a few 
minutes later Sedgwick's Division, with five or 
six thousand, failed to carry. 

We moved back out of the corn-field to our 
old position, and immediately after Sedgwick's 
Division came in from the northeast. As they 
moved forward in perfect line to the attack, they 
presented a splendid sight, even to old soldiers, 
and we had little doubt that they would sweep 
everything before them. They marched in three 
parallel lines, one behind the other, and about 
seventy-five yards apart. The brigade and field 
officers, aware of the peculiar danger of being on 
horseback in such a place, all marched with their 
men on foot. The only mounted officer in the en- 
tire division was old General Sumner himself, 
who rode a little in the rear of his first line. He 
was then nearly seventy years of age, perfectly 
grey but still proudly erect. As he stretched his 
tall form to its full height on his horse, in order to 
see what might be in front of his men, he was the 
most conspicuous object on the field, and undoubt- 

[58] 



ANTIETAM 

edly was the target for every Confederate sharp- 
shooter in sight. 

No resistance of consequence was met until the 
advance brigade was out of sight in the woods, and 
the Second Brigade was just at the edge. Then 
a heavy musketry fire showed that the enemy had 
reformed their Hnes and were making a stubborn 
fight. Their artillery also now opened fire, and 
shells and round shot began to fall in our neigh- 
borhood. It soon became evident to us, who were 
spectators of the fight, that General Sumner's for- 
mation had been a serious mistake. His second 
and third brigades were exposed to a heavy fire 
from the enemy, yet they could not reply on ac- 
count of the line in front of them. They soon 
broke up in confusion, therefore,, and fell back out 
of range. The leading brigade held on for over 
half an hour, to the position that it had gained in 
the woods, when it also fell back, with but a 
small portion of the magnificent line which a short 
time before had so gallantly gone forward to the 
attack. 

The remnant of our Regiment, together with 
portions of several other like commands, were now 

[59] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

stationed at the edge of the woods behind a bat- 
tery of artillery. There was little more active 
fighting, however, in that part of the field during 
the remainder of the day. At one time the enemy 
made an attempt to recover the lost ground in the 
corn-field, but the batteries easily drove them back 
to the woods. Soon after twelve o'clock we were 
relieved by fresh troops and moved a short distance 
to the rear. With the friendly aid of a rail fence 
we now built a fire, and prepared our dinner of 
hardtack and coffee, and remained quiet for the 
rest of the day. To the left the firing continued 
until late in the afternoon. 

Many of our gallant boys laid down their lives 
that bloody day on the battle-field of Antietam. 
In the morning, our Regiment had taken mto the 
fight twelve officers and not quite 300 enlisted 
men. The number was thus small because our 
wounded from Cedar Mountain had not yet re- 
joined us, and hard marching had sent others to 
the hospital. Of the twelve officers, we lost one 
killed and seven severely wounded. The Colonel 
had been hit in the head by a bullet, which had 
cut just deep enough to draw blood; while I had 

[60] 



ANTIETAM 

received a severe bruise from a spent ball. Of 
our 300 privates, we lost 194 in killed and 
wounded. The Twenty-Seventh Indiana on our 
left, had lost about half of its men; the Second 
Massachusetts on the right, had suffered in about 
the same proportion. 

In my Company, of the thirty men whom I took 
into the field, two had been killed, two mortally 
wounded, and sixteen so severely hurt, that they 
were ordered to the hospital. Of all that Com- 
pany, only one had escaped without the mark of 
a bullet upon his person or his clothes. Every one 
of our color-guard, composed of a corporal from 
each company, had been shot down before the 
battle was over. As its bearers fell, the flag had 
been passed along the line until it had come into 
the hands of one of my privates, Joseph Collins, 
who carried it the remainder of the day. The 
color-bearers of the enemy had been even more un- 
fortunate. On our charge into the corn-field, our 
men picked up several of their banners that had 
fallen with their bearers. 

When night at length put a merciful end to the 

battle, all along the line, both thoroughly-worn- 

[6i] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

out armies were, I am sure, glad for the chance to 
rest. I know that I, for one, was completely ex- 
hausted. The sun had scarcely set before I had 
wrapped myself in my overcoat, and with my hav- 
ersack for a pillow, was sound asleep, quite ob- 
livious of the fact that the field of the dead was 
only a few steps away. In the morning we were 
early astir expecting a renewal of the fight. Our 
men threw away all of their old muskets, and 
armed themselves with the new Springfield rifles of 
the improved pattern, picked up on the battle-field. 
Ammunition and rations were issued, and every 
preparation made to receive the enemy. All was 
quiet, however, and so remained for the rest of the 
day. At about noon, General Franklin's Corps 
came up from Harpers Ferry and took position on 
our right. 

During that afternoon I went over the corn-field 
that had been the scene of the hardest fighting 
the previous day. It was a sight which once seen 
could never be forgotten. The dead lay as they 
had fallen, and in such dreadful numbers! Sev- 
eral times had the ground been fought over; the 

bodies of brave men were so thickly strewn over it, 

[62] 



WINTERING 

that one might for rods have walked on corpses 
without touching the ground. 

When we advanced our lines, the morning of 
the 1 9th, the enemy had disappeared. Only his 
picket line still remained, and that surrendered 
without resistance. These prisoners appeared to 
be dazed with discouragement; many of them 
seemed glad to have been taken. Like the thou- 
sands whom we had captured during the heat of 
the battle, they were destitute of clothing, and their 
haversacks contained nothing but raw corn. 

In Winter Quarters 

So far as we were concerned, the battle of An- 
tietam ended active campaigning for the winter of 
1862. During the next two months we moved 
about between Harpers Ferry and the mouth of 
Antietam Creek, doing occasional guard duty, and 
for the most part passing the time uneventfully. 
On October 1 President Lincoln visited our camp 
at Maryland Heights. It seemed to me that he 
did full justice to his reputation for homeliness. 
He came entirely unannounced, but we hurriedly 
turned out the Regiment and presented arms. For 

[63] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

a time, on account of their greenness, the new regi- 
ments m camp furnished a source of amusement. 
Most of them had received large bounties on en- 
listment, and the old soldiers taunted them as 
bounty-bought; they were told that the Govern- 
ment could have secured mules much cheaper. 

On November 1 3 came my commission as First 
Lieutenant of Company E. This did not ma- 
terially change my position, for I had been in com- 
mand of a company ever since the battle of An- 
tietam. On November 1 7 we went into winter 
camp at Fairfax Station, but sometime in January 
removed to Stafford Court House. In the mean- 
time McClellan had been finally removed from 
the command of the Army of the Potomac; and 
Burnside, who had followed him, had in his turn, 
been relieved after the battle of Fredericksburg, 
by General Joe Hooker. 

Hooker was evidently determined to build up 
a thoroughly efficient army, and spent the winter 
in constant efforts toward improving the condition 
and effectiveness of his troops. Inspections be- 
came extremely rigid; they extended not only to 
arms and equipment, but to camp and garrison 

[64] 



VISITING HOME 

equipage, policing, and sanitation. Regiments 
reaching the highest standard for general efficiency 
and appearance were awarded leaves of absence 
for two officers at a time for fifteen days each, and 
furloughs for two men at a time, in each company, 
for the same period. Regiments that at first were 
not up to standard, were in the course of the winter 
given their furloughs as they attained efficiency. 

Our Regiment was one of the eleven in the en- 
tire army which, when the first inspection was 
made, proved to be in the highest degree of effi- 
ciency. Leaves of absence and furloughs com- 
menced at once, and before spring all who cared 
to go had a chance to visit their homes. The dis- 
tance to Wisconsin was too great to make it profit- 
able for me to return ; so I visited a sister in New 
York State, taking advantage of this opportunity 
to see the sights of New York City and Wash- 
ington. 

During the winter the army was gradually 
strengthened by the return of convalescents. 
Thus our Regiment was able by spring once more 
to muster about 400 muskets. Many of the per- 
manently disabled officers were transferred to the 

5 [65] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

invalid corps, and those who were sick were dis- 
charged, thus giving way to more vigorous and 
able-bodied men. The army was now in the best 
condition that it had ever been in, and we all 
looked forward to a successful campaign. 

Chancellor sville 

On the moming of April 27, 1 863, we left our 
winter camp at Stafford Court House and marched 
to Kelly's Ford on the Rappahannock. Pontoon 
bridges had bfeen laid ahead of us, and the 
Eleventh Corps had already crossed. Early on 
the moming of the 29th, we followed, and started 
at once for Germanna Ford on the Rapidan, twelve 
miles off. Three corps of the Army of the Po- 
tomac were engaged in the expedition — the Fifth, 
Eleventh and Twelfth. Our Corps, the Twelfth, 
after crossing, pushed on to the head of the column, 
and our Brigade was given the position of honor 
in the advance. We carried eight days' rations 
and a hundred rounds of ammunition. In addi- 
tion, several pack mules laden with boxes of cart- 
ridges followed each regiment, so that we felt sure 

we were out for business. The men were in good 

[66] 



CHANCELLORSVILLE 

spirits, however, and notwithstanding the heavy 
loads marched rapidly. 

We arrived at the ford in about four hours, with- 
out alarming the enemy. A portion of the Regi- 
ment were deployed as skirmishers under cover 
of the woods, three or four hundred yards from the 
river bank. At the word of command they moved 
on the run down to the river. Here each man 
hastily found for himself such shelter as he could, 
behind trees and brush, and opened fire on the 
enemy who were occupying some buildings on the 
opposite side. As we approached the river about 
a dozen Confederates started to run up the hill 
back of their position, in an attempt to escape. 
Our men were excellent marksmen, however, and 
after two had been killed and several others 
wounded, the rest of the enemy hastened back to 
the shelter of the buildings. Occasionally some 
fellow would fire at us from a window, but the 
puff of smoke from his gun would make him im- 
mediately the target for every musket within range, 
and that practice was soon discouraged. In less 
than ten minutes from the time when the skirmish 
commenced, the Southerners had hung out a white 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

rag and surrendered. The swift-flowing Rapi- 
dan, nearly three hundred feet wide, separated 
them from us, but we compelled them to wade 
over. In this way, without a casualty to our- 
selves, we bagged 101 prisoners, and not a man 
escaped to the enemy to give waming of our ap- 
proach. ' 'ill 
We had just secured our prisoners when Gen- 
eral Slocum came up. He immediately took in 
the situation, and ordered us to cross the river and 
secure the heights on the other side. We had had 
a good time laughmg at our prisoners as we made 
them cross over to us, with the water up to their 
armpits ; but when we had to go in ourselves, it did 
not seem so funny. It was still early in the spring, 
and the water was icy cold from the melting snow 
in the mountains. Moreover, the current was so 
swift that some mounted officers and cavalry who 
went in ahead of us could scarcely keep a footing. 
If a horse stumbled, he was washed off his feet in 
an instant and carried down stream. In fact, one 
man was drowned in such an accident, and several 
others had narrow escapes. We prepared for 

crossing by placing our ammunition and provisions, 

[68] 



CHANCELLORSVILLE 

and such valuables as would be injured by the 
water, on the ends of the muskets or on our heads, 
and plunged in. We had the small men dis- 
tributed among the large ones, and in this way 
crossed without serious trouble. We were fol-. 
lowed in the same manner by the Second Massa- 
chusetts. Once across we pushed rapidly for the 
hill overlooking the ford, where we took a strong 
position and threw out our pickets. 

The pontoon train had by this time come up, 
and a bridge was soon built. The remainder of 
our Corps and the Eleventh Corps then crossed 
and went into camp ahead of us. We now gath- 
ered about our fires, and dried out our clothes in 
order to have them once more in comfortable shape 
by bed-time. 

The next morning we moved to Chancellors- 
ville, where we arrived early in the day. It is a 
very big name for a very small place; at that time 
it contained only one house. The position which 
we had thus gained uncovered the road to United 
States Ford, on the Rappahannock. Here an- 
other pontoon bridge was laid, and General 
Hooker crossed it with his force. We were all in 

[ 69 ] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

the best of spirits, for in securing this advantage of 
position we thought that the victory had already 
been gained. 

On the morning of May 1 our Brigade engaged 
in a successful reconnoissance tovs^ard Fredericks- 
burg, in vs^hich we captured a number of prisoners. 
On our return to Chancel lorsville we were sent to 
occupy a slight rise of ground at Hazel Grove, 
about a mile southwest of Chancellor House. 
Here, in a sharp skirmish with the enemy, Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Scott was shot through the head by a 
chance ball and instantly killed. During the after- 
noon. General Hooker rode around the lines, 
jubilant over the success of his movements. Sev- 
eral times he remarked that now he had got the 
Confederates where he wanted them, and they 
would have to fight us on our own ground or be 
destroyed. At that time the army still had un- 
bounded confidence in him; but it seemed to me a 
bit curious that the man who was ready at Antie- 
tam to lead 130 men to a charge on the whole 
Southern army, should now get into entrenchment 
when he had at his command 1 30,000 soldiers. 

The night passed off without incident. At 
[70] 



CHANCELLORSVILLE 

about ten o'clock the next morning it was discov- 
ered that the enemy were moving wagon trains 
toward the southwest. Birney's Division of the 
Fifth Corps, which had been in position some- 
where in our rear, was sent out at about noon to 
stop them. A sharp musketry fire for a minute or 
two indicated to us that the attack had been made, 
and soon after several hundred Southern prison- 
ers were sent back to us under guard. At about 
four in the afternoon, our Regiment was ordered to 
deploy as skirmishers through the woods upon the 
left of Birney, to capture Confederate stragglers 
who were believed to be lurking there in large 
numbers. Obedient to these orders we piled up 
our knapsacks, overcoats, and other baggage, be- 
hind the breastworks we had built, and moved 
forward into the woods. We had advanced 
about half a mile from our entrenchments, when 
the storm broke loose in the rear. The army of 
Stonewall Jackson had struck the Eleventh Corps 
in the flank and rear, and had brushed it away 
like a swarm of flies before a hurricane. I was 
afterward told that the defeated Corps came 
tumbling along through the woods, an indiscrimi- 

[71] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

nate mass of flying men, pack mules with their 
packs turned, and stray artillery horses. Nor did 
they bring up until they were stopped at Chancel- 
lorsville by three regiments of Hooker's cavalry. 
However, the best troops in the world could not, 
if struck in the same way, have stood against such 
an attack. 

Our line was now halted to await developments. 
Very soon a Confederate battery was in position 
on the hill which we had just left, and was throw- 
ing shells over toward Chancellor House. Di- 
rectly in our front, to the south, another battery was 
firing in the same direction. We were hidden from 
this second battery by timber and underbrush, but 
were so close to it that in the intervals of the firing 
we could distinctly hear the strokes of swabs and 
rammers as the guns were swabbed out, and the 
charges rammed home. From my position I could 
see the battery near our old entrenchments, as it 
came up and commenced firing. However, it did 
not remain there long. The fire from our own 
batteries, near the Chancellor House, blew up two 
caissons or their limber chests, and the rest of the 

Southern battery sought a safer place. 

[72] 



CHANCELLORSVILLE 

The roar of artillery and musketry still contin- 
ued around the Chancellor House and to the west 
of it ; but we could tell by the sound of the firing 
that the Confederate advance had been stayed. 
By seven o'clock darkness had settled over the 
field, bringing with it for a time comparative quiet. 
We began to look around now, for a way out of 
the woods, and back to our Corps. Our scouts 
soon found that Geary's Division still held the en- 
trenchments which they had built the night before, 
and that we might return safely through their 
lines to the Chancellor House. By nine o'clock, 
therefore, we were once more in line of battle 
with the rest of the Brigade, in the woods west 
of the House. 

Shortly after our return, occurred the confusion 
in which Stonewall Jackson was mortally 
wounded. Our picket line had been driven in by 
the enemy, and we had fired a volley or two into 
the woods on our front. At the same time we had 
been fired on in the darkness by the Thirteenth 
New Jersey. General Jackson was struck just at 
this time, in the woods into which we had fired. 
It has been presumed that he was hit by his own 

[73] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

men, but there is a possibility that the bullet came 
from the Third Wisconsin. 

We secured but little sleep that night. Our ar- 
tillery contmued throwing shot and shell over our 
heads into the woods fronting us, where the enemy 
were supposed to be in force. At midnight the 
Confederates again attacked us; but Birney's Divi- 
sion, which had been cut off from us in the after- 
noon by Jackson's attack, struck them with fixed 
bayonets in the flank at the same time that we 
opened on them in the front — and of course we 
made short work of them. We had now regained 
the ground where we had left our knapsacks, but 
for fear of another attack, the officers would not 
let us go up after them. So we shivered miserably 
through the night, and in the morning arose thor- 
oughly chilled. 

The enemy, however, soon gave us enough to do 
to warm our blood. Birney's Division had, during 
the night, taken a new position in our advance, at 
Hazel Grove. It was attacked early Sunday 
morning, and in the course of an hour driven back 
with the reported loss of one of its batteries. As 
Birney's men passed back over us, the enemy came 

[74] 



CHANCELLORSVILLE 

on, flushed with victory, and in some disorder. 
But in a few minutes we sent them back, in worse 
disorder than they had come. We followed 
them for a quarter of a mile, but there encountered 
a second line. In a short time we had the satisfac- 
tion of seeing their backs, also, dimly in the dis- 
tance. Colonel Col grove of the Twenty-Seventh 
Indiana, who was commanding the Brigade, now 
ordered a bayonet charge; but before we were 
fairly started. General Ruger sent orders not to 
advance any farther. Soon the enemy attacked 
again; but after a stubborn fight we sent them 
back for a third time, their ranks disorganized and 
the ground thickly strewn with their dead. 

It was now near nine o'clock. We had been 
fighting continuously for three hours, and all of the 
ammunition that we carried had been exhausted. 
That carried by the pack mules had been dis- 
tributed, also, and was nearly all fired away. The 
muskets had become so heated and foul that it was 
difficult to load them. Some of the pieces were 
so hot that the cartridge would explode as soon as 
it struck the bottom of the gun, and before the man 
had been able to aim. Because of this, we were 

[75] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

relieved by a fresh brigade, and marched back 
about a mile to the rear. From there we were sent 
to a position a little northeast of the Chancellor 
House, where we built breastworks and remained 
until the army was withdrawn across the river. 

All the rest of the day we could hear the firing 
to our right, and the next day, off in the direction 
of Fredericksburg, where Sedgwick's Corps was 
engaged; but we made no move. We only sat 
around, wearily watching the time pass away, 
until the night of the 5th, when preparations began 
to be made for the withdrawal of the army to the 
north bank of the river. The night was cold and 
rainy. Our blankets and overcoats had been lost, 
for we had left them on the second night of the 
battle to pick up stragglers, and fires were not per- 
mitted, lest they reveal our movement. As we 
shivered through the long, dark hours, all the ad- 
miration vanished that we had previously felt for 
Fighting Joe Hooker. 

Toward day we silently withdrew from the en- 
trenchments we had made, and marched off to the 
river. We found when we came near, however, 
that the approaches to the bridge were still 

[7^] 



CHANCELLORSVILLE 

crowded with the moving troops; we had, there- 
fore, to double-quick back to the entrenchments, 
and wait until the bridge was cleared. Then we 
crossed over, the last of the army, entirely unmo- 
lested except for a few shells thrown by a Con- 
federate battery. 

We now returned to Stafford Court House, and 
at night pitched our tents on the very ground we 
had left ten days before. We were all thoroughly 
discouraged over the outcome of our expedition, 
and feeling, as one of our officers expressed it, 
*'that we had gone out for wool, and come back 
shorn." The old soldiers who took part in that 
movement cannot think of it, to this day, but with 
the strongest feelings of disgust. 

The camp that we occupied on our return to 
Stafford Court House was one of the best we ever 
had. It was an old orchard, with a vacant field 
near by for a drill and parade ground. Our 
friends, the Second Massachusetts, occupied one 
end of the orchard and we the other. Between us 
was a good baseball ground, where we amused 
ourselves at playing ball or pitching quoits. Every 
night after supper, the officers of the two regi- 

177 \ 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

ments would get together for a big game, while the 
rank and file would follow suit, and our drill 
ground would present an animated sight. Thus 
we whiled away the time with considerable com- 
fort, often speculating on the possibility of the en- 
emy commg across the river to attack us. So many 
regiments of two-year men and nine-months men 
were being mustered out of the service, that we 
did not consider it at all likely that we would cross 
the river until our ranks were filled by the con- 
scription which had then been ordered. 

A Cavalry Expedition ' 

On June 6 this easy life came to an end. The 
company commanders of our Regiment were sum- 
moned to the Colonel's tent, and informed that the 
Regiment had been selected to accompany a cav- 
alry expedition. We were instructed to leave be- 
hind all baggage not carried on the persons of the 
men, and to take only those who could march thirty 
miles a day. The expedition was to be composed 
of the two best regiments in each corps — the Sec- 
ond Massachusetts and ourselves having been se- 
lected from the Twelfth. 

[78] 



ON THE RAPPAHANNOCK 

We left our camp at about six o'clock and 
marched that night to Spott Tavern, fifteen miles 
away. The next day we reached Bealeton Sta- 
tion, where we bivouacked in the woods until the 
night of the 8th, awaiting the arrival of our cav- 
alry. We were joined here by a number of other 
regiments, the whole force being under command 
of General Ames. Our State pride was highly 
gratified to find four Wisconsin regiments in this 
detail of picked commands from every corps. 

On the night of the 8th, our whole force, in- 
fantry, artillery, and cavalry, moved down to the 
Rappahannock at Beverly Ford. The next 
morning, a portion of the Third Wisconsin was 
deployed to cover the crossing; but the enemy had 
not discovered us, and we passed over without 
trouble. The cavalry now pushed on to Brandy 
Station, on the railroad; the infantry following, 
with our detachment in the lead. The cavalry 
were soon briskly engaged, and in a little while 
Colonel Davis, their commanding officer, was 
brought back mortally wounded. The infantry 
was now disposed on the flanks, to guard the cav- 
alry from being taken at a disadvantage. The 

[79]. 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

fighting soon became general, being mostly by de- 
tached companies deployed as skirmishers. At 
one time, in advancing with my Company to clear 
out a piece of woods, I had a lively fight for a 
short time; five men out of the twenty with me 
were severely wounded before we drove the en- 
emy from their shelter. At another time, Com- 
pany D succeeded in getting on the flank and rear 
of a North Carolina regiment, and captured over 
a hundred prisoners. Some of our cavalry regi- 
ments were pretty severely handled at the be- 
ginning of the fight, especially before the infantry 
came up. On the whole, however, the expedition 
was a success, resulting in the capture of the head- 
quarters of the Confederate cavalry leader. Gen- 
eral J. E. B. Stuart, together with many valuable 
papers and orders relating to the contemplated in- 
vasion of the North. 

Gettysburg 

We now recrossed Beverly Ford and went into 

camp until the 12th. Then we learned that the 

Confederate army was on the move toward the 

North, and that our army was marching to Man- 

[80] 



GETTYSBURG 

assas Junction and Centerville. We therefore 
marched in the same direction, and on the 16th 
rejoined our Corps near Centerville. Reaching 
Leesburg on the 1 8th, we went into camp. We 
had no definite information as to the location of 
the Confederate army, but rather suspected that it 
was moving into the Shenandoah Valley. This 
suspicion was confirmed when we leamed that 
they had occupied Winchester and Martinsburg. 
We heard of them next as crossing the Potomac at 
Williamsport and marching into Pennsylvania. 

During our stay at Leesburg, several men from 
a New York regiment were shot for desertion. 
They were the first executions for that crime in our 
army, and for a time, they produced a great sen- 
sation. On the 26th we crossed the Potomac at 
Edward's Ferry, and proceeded up the river to the 
mouth of the Monocacy ; thence we moved across 
to Frederick City, where we went into camp early 
on the afternoon of the 28th. 

During the night I learned that our Division 
was under marching orders to strike for Williams- 
port in the morning, and destroy the bridge on 
which the enemy had crossed the Potomac. We 
6 [8i] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

were to destroy, also, all boats and ferries that 
might be used by the Confederates in a retreat. 
Then we were to rejoin the army if we could; if 
not, to move west to Cumberland, and rejoin as 
opportunity offered. With morning, however, 
came a change of commanders, and with it also, 
a change of orders. General Hooker had been 
superseded by General Meade, and now we were 
ordered northward to follow the army that had 
gone ahead. 

At noon on July 1 , while we were preparing 
our dinner at Two Taverns, some eight miles 
south of Gettysburg, the distant rumbling of ar- 
tillery to the north announced to us the opening 
of a great battle. The cannonading became more 
and more furious as the minutes passed, until in 
the distance it sounded like one continual roll of 
thunder. At length came the order to march, and 
in five minutes we were on the road to the front 
as fast as our strength could take us. As we 
trudged along, we met hundreds of Confederate 
prisoners being sent to the rear, as well as a good 
many of our own wounded, on their way to the 

[82] 



GETTYSBURG 

field hospitals. Of stragglers, there were excep- 
tionally few. 

On the run we reached Cemetery Ridge, where 
we learned that the First and Eleventh corps had 
been compelled to fall back through the town of 
Gettysburg. They had taken a new position on a 
ridge east of the city. A portion of our Brigade 
now filed off to the right, across Rock Creek, 
thence north about half a mile; and then, having 
deployed about half of our Regiment as skirmish- 
ers, advanced toward the west until we were 
sharply engaged with the enemy's skirmishers. 
Only a little over two hours had passed from the 
time when we received the order to march eight 
miles distant, before we were in position on the 
extreme right of the line of battle, checking the ad- 
vance of the enemy in that direction. There we 
remained until sunset, when we were relieved by 
the cavalry, and recrossed Rock Creek to the 
west side. 

As the remainder of our Corps had come up, 
they took position on the right of the First Corps. 
We now rejoined them there, our own right rest- 
ing on Rock Creek. Immediately we began to 

[83] ^ 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

throw up breastworks, and by evening had built 
for ourselves quite respectable entrenchments. It 
rained during most of the night; but in spite of 
that and the enemy, we secured a good rest for the 
next day's work. 

Early the next morning we were stirring, in an- 
ticipation of an attack; but until noon there was 
nothing but skirmishing in our vicinity. Then 
the storm broke loose on the extreme left of the 
line, near Little Round Top, where Sickles's 
Corps was situated. The place was entirely hid- 
den from our sight, and from the sounds we could 
form no opinion as to how things were going; 
but we were constantly receiving reports that 
Sickles was either holding his own or driving the 
enemy before him. In the light of subsequent 
events, these reports seem to have been purposely 
colored, in order to keep up our spirits. Occasional 
demonstrations along our front kept us in constant 
expectation of being attacked, but nothing of the 
sort occurred. 

About six o'clock we were hurried out of our 
entrenchments at a double-quick toward Little 
Round Top, where it was understood that Sickles's 

[84] 



GETTYSBURG 

Third Corps had been driven back with severe 
loss. But before we arrived, the enemy had been 
repulsed, and the firing ceased. We were now 
started back to our entrenchments. We found, how- 
ever, upon our arrival, that the enemy had in our 
absence taken possession of them. It was exasper- 
ating to see them benefitting by our labors, but we 
were somewhat consoled by the capture of a picket 
of twenty Confederates, who in the darkness had 
wandered into our line as we approached. We 
were now obliged to form a new line, connecting 
with our forces on the left as before, but swinging 
back at an angle on the right to Rock Creek. We 
thus presented to the enemy a semi-circular front, 
which they could not penetrate without being 
subjected to a cross fire from both sides. 

During the night we remained unmolested. At 
daylight the firing commenced. The ground oc- 
cupied by the enemy's skirmishers was a rocky bit 
of woodland which furnished abundant cover for 
sharpshooters. For a while they annoyed us, but 
by nine o'clock we had dislodged them, and 
driven them back to the cover of their breastworks. 
On our left the enemy were making desperate 

[85] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

efforts to dislodge from their entrenchments 
Greene's Brigade and the troops of the First 
Corps. Six times they came up to the assault, and 
six times were repulsed, leaving the ground over 
which they advanced literally covered with their 
dead. At about eleven o'clock a portion of our 
Division followed up these successes by charging 
the Confederates in our front and sweeping them 
entirely out of our entrenchments. They retired 
only a short distance, however, showing that they 
had not abandoned th^ contest. 

For nearly two hours, complete quiet now suc- 
ceeded the roar and din of the battle. Not a 
cannon was fired. Only an occasional musket shot 
disturbed the silence that prevailed from one end 
of the field to the other. We all felt, however, 
that this was but a lull before the final burst 
of the storm. The losses in our Regiment had thus 
far been light, and our spirits ran high. We felt 
entire confidence that no force that the Southern- 
ers could bring against us could by direct assault 
break our line at any point. 

About one o'clock, the first shot was fired in the 

tremendous artillery duel that preceded the last 

[86] 



GETTYSBURG 

desperate attempt to penetrate our center at Ceme- 
tery Ridge. In five minutes three hundred guns 
were pouring into one another, their deadly show- 
ers of shot and shell, and making fearful havoc of 
every thing that was not sheltered. From our po- 
sition in the woods we could see nothing of what 
was going on in other parts of the line; but the air 
above was filled with screaming shells, as they 
flew back and forth on their deadly errand. In 
some instances, shells from the Confederate bat- 
teries in front of the Second Corps would pass en- 
tirely over our lines, and land near the enemy in 
our front; a great many of them fell in the open 
space in our rear. 

At one time during the progress of the cannon- 
ade, a battery was placed in position on a hill 
across Rock Creek directly in front of our Regi- 
ment, and began to drop shells unpleasantly close 
to us. But our friends of Battery M, of the First 
New York Artillery, who had been with us since 
the Brigade was organized, seemed to get their 
range at once, and promptly silenced them. On a 
trip over the field, the next day, I found the posi- 

[87] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

tion where they had been stationed marked by a 
dozen dead horses and two exploded caissons. 

During the cannonading, I took occasion to go 
back into the woods a short distance in order to 
get a view of what was going on. Everything in 
sight gave evidence of the severity of the fire. All 
those who were not actively engaged had sought 
the shelter of rocks and trees or the inequalities of 
the ground. Here and there mounted officers and 
orderlies were riding across the field, although at 
first sight it seemed as though a bird could scarcely 
fly over it unharmed. 

In the course of an hour the terriffic artillery fire 
slackened. Then for a few minutes it nearly 
ceased. In the interval of silence, Pickett's Di- 
vision of Confederates was marching to the 
charge. From my position I could not see them 
coming on, but I knew that they were charging by 
the old familiar Southern yell. Soon that was 
drowned in the roar of musketry and artillery. 
For a time all was turmoil and confusion. At 
length the hearty cheers of our comrades rang out, 
and we knew that the Confederate tide of invasion 

had been safely rolled back. 

[88] 



GETTYSBURG 

While this assault was being made on the cen- 
ter, constant demonstrations were being made on 
our front, and we momentarily expected an attack. 
None came, however, although during all the rest 
of the day the enemy presented an unshaken line. 
At night they silently withdrew, and on the morn- 
ing of the 4th our reconnoitering parties could find 
nothing of them east of Seminary Ridge, save 
their dead and severely wounded, whom they had 
left on the field. 

I spent some time that day going over the 
ground occupied by the enemy in front of the 
Twelfth Corps, and that over which Pickett had 
made his now famous charge. From what I saw, I 
felt certain that the enemy's losses were double our 
own. Where they had assaulted Geary's Di- 
vision on the evening of the 2nd and on the morn- 
ing of the 3rd, the ground was so strewn with 
their dead that it would have been possible to 
walk for rods on dead bodies. 

On the morning of the 3th the enemy was on 
the road back to Virginia. We started the same 
day following hard after them, on parallel roads 
to the east. When they reached Williamsport, 

[89] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

however, they turned on us with a bold front. It 
had been raining almost constantly for several 
weeks and the Potomac was a raging torrent, 
which could not be forded. We were in hopes that 
it might thus continue until our forces could be 
concentrated to overwhelm them. On the morn- 
ing of the 1 3th, however, when we were ready to 
move forward to the attack, they were gone. The 
river had fallen during the night, and they had 
made good their retreat. 

For a time our Regiment led in the pursuit to the 
ford at Falling Waters. Then we were filed out 
to the side of the road to make way for General 
Kilpatrick's Cavalry Brigade. They had scarcely 
passed out of sight through a patch of woods, 
when the roar of artillery and the sharp crack of 
musketry announced that the enemy had been 
found. We moved forward as rapidly as pos- 
sible, but were not in time to take any part in the 
conflict. It appeared that when the cavalry had 
emerged from the woods they had found a brigade 
of Confederate infantry posted as a rear guard, on 
a ridge overlooking the ford at Falling Waters. 
They had immediately charged the enemy's 

[90] 



WAR PRICES 

breastworks and had captured over a thousand 
prisoners. They had won, besides, as trophies of 
their skirmish, two pieces of artillery and four or 
five colors inscribed with all the battles of the 
Army of Northern Virginia. No further pursuit 
was made. All of Lee's army, save only this rear 
guard, had escaped safely to the south side of the 
Potomac. 

At about this time I sent to my home in Wis- 
consin the following letter concerning Lee's in- 
vasion : 

I have wished a good many times that the rebs could 
have had a month more among the people of Pennsyl- 
vania. What little sympathy I had for them is gone now. 
I cannot appreciate that disposition which will swindle a 
friend to compensate for what an enemy has stolen from 
you. In some cases the farmers would sell our men pro- 
visions at reasonable rates and even give them something, 
but the majority would ask from $.60 to $1 .00 a loaf for 
bread, and $.25 a quart for milk, and all such things in 
proportion. 

Our Corps now moved down the river to Har- 
pers Ferry, and crossing into Virginia, marched 

[91] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

leisurely along the eastern side of the Blue Ridge. 
We found the abandoned fields through which 
we passed overgrown with blackberry bushes, and 
literally black with the ripened fruit. Every night 
the men would go out from camp, and within easy 
range find as many berries as they could eat. And 
they were the best medicine we ever used. I 
knew of cases of diarrhea that had become almost 
chronic, soon cured by this diet. 

On Draft Riot duty 

On July 3 1 we went into camp near Kelly's 
Ferry on the Rappahannock, where for the next 
two weeks we did guard duty along the river and 
rested from the fatigue of the long marches we 
had made since leaving StafFord Court House. 
On August 15 came orders to move. The next 
morning we marched down to Rappahannock 
Station in company with two other old regiments 
of the Brigade, and boarded the cars for Alex- 
andria, on our way to New York. We were 
joined at the station by five other regiments from 
the different brigades, all under command of Gen- 
eral Ruger. 

[92] 



IN NEW YORK 

It seems that during the Confederate invasion 
of Pennsylvania, the New York militia regiments 
had been called off for duty in Washington, Bal- 
timore, and other places. A riotous mob in New 
York City had taken advantage of this circum- 
stance to break out in defiance of the authorities, 
and in resistance to the execution of the draft. 
They had for several days held the city in a reign 
of terror, and it had been necessary to stop all pro- 
ceedings under the draft. 

After a wait of several days, we embarked 
at Alexandria on the steamer "Merrimac," and 
proceeded down the Potomac to the ocean, thence 
to New York City. We landed at the foot of 
Canal Street, and quietly marched to the City 
Hall Park, where we arrived at about ten o'clock 
on Saturday night. Barracks had been provided 
for the enlisted men, but the officers' tents had not 
arrived. This did not trouble us much, however, 
as we had been without tents much of the time 
during the past two months. Wrapped in our rub- 
ber blankets, we lay on the grass and slept, as the 
landlady in Rob Roy says, "like a good sword in 
its scabbard." We awoke in the morning to find 

[93] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

the sun well up in the heavens, and the park sur- 
rounded by a crowd of curious people, surprised to 
see a number of fairly well-dressed officers, sleep- 
ing on the ground like a lot of vagrants. 

The next day, tents were pitched and cots pre- 
pared, and we were enjoying the delights of camp 
life amid all the surroundings of civilization. We 
had our dress parades and guard mountings with 
all the pomp and show that 300 men can make, to 
the delight of the great crowds who had come to 
see the veterans of Antietam and Gettysburg. 
Soon after our arrival I was detailed for duty in 
the provost marshal's office of the Fifth District of 
New York, where the rioting had been most des- 
perate. I had charge of the guard stationed there 
to preserve order and see that those who brought 
substitutes or recruits were promptly admitted. 

There were no disturbances in the city while 
we were there, except such as our men made for 
themselves, at the instigation of the police. We 
had plenty of bold fellows in the Regiment, who 
wanted no better amusement than to raid a saloon 
that had been the headquarters of the rioters. 
They would get out of camp at night, and gather 

[94] ' 



SEASICKNESS 

in such a saloon pointed out to them by the police. 
Then they would get up a row on some pretext, 
and pitch bartenders and bummers out of doors, 
and smash everything breakable about the place. 
Everyone in the Regiment could find a way to en- 
joy himself, and a policeman to help him, and 
would have been content to stay in the city much 
longer than we did. 

On September 6 came orders to return to our 
camp. We marched down to the Battery in the 
evening, and were conveyed in small boats to the 
steamer "Mississippi." In the morning, when I 
awoke, we were rolling and pitching in a manner 
that I had never before experienced in my limited 
travels by water. A few of the officers had be- 
come seasick on our way up to New York, and 
those of us who escaped had enjoyed the fun of 
laughing at them. I did not propose therefore to 
give up now. So I dressed and started for break- 
fast. One smell of the coffee, and I had business 
on deck. But after gazing steadily over the side 
of the vessel for a time, I felt better, and by noon 
had recovered my appetite. 

We arrived at Alexandria on the 9th. On 
[95] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

the 13th we reached our camp at Kelly's Ferry, 
and found the Thirteenth New Jersey drawn up 
in line to welcome us back to the old Brigade. 
We did not, however, remain long in camp. 
Rumors began to float about, that Lee was send- 
ing a part of his army to reenforce Bragg in north- 
western Georgia. Within two days we were 
again on the march to the Rapidan, behind which 
the enemy had retired. We reached Raccoon 
Ford on the 16th, and our Regiment and the 
Second Massachusetts were detailed to support 
pickets at the Ford. 

We camped in the woods near the river, with 
sentinels at night down to the bank, but during the 
day they were withdrawn to the most convenient 
cover in the neighborhood. The enemy were 
camped just behind the hills on the other side. 
Just about this time they appeared to be having a 
religious revival. While visiting my sentinels 
after dark, I could hear them preaching, praying, 
and singing, whole regiments apparently being 
thus engaged. Under orders from Corps head- 
quarters we refrained from firing upon their pickets 
and they reciprocated the courtesy, which made it 

[96] 



A NEW ENVIRONMENT 

much pleasanter for the sentinels on both sides of 
the river. 

With the Army of the Cumberland 

After two days of this picket duty we were re- 
lieved by a Connecticut regiment and rejoined our 
Corps. We found that we were under orders to 
march the next day to Brandy Station, on the 
railroad. We did not know it at the time, but 
we were about to take our leave from the old Army 
of the Potomac, with which we had been asso- 
ciated since its organization. We had fought side 
by side in som.e of the hardest battles in the war; 
and had we been consulted in the matter, we 
would doubtless have voted to stay where we 
were, and help it to finish Lee's army. However, 
we were not consulted, and the necessities of war 
now called us to the Army of the Cumberland at 
Chattanooga. 

On the night of the 24th, we bivouacked at 
Brandy Station, where the paymaster worked all 
night paying off the troops, and where we saw the 
Eleventh Corps being loaded for Alexandria. 
The next morning we marched to Bealeton Sta- 

7 [97] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

tion, where, after a wait of a day, we also loaded 
up and started. The cars were ordinary freight 
trucks, with rough board benches set crosswise, 
and the men were crowded in as thick as they 
could be seated. 

We pulled out of Washington over the Balti- 
more & Ohio Railroad, the trains containing forty 
or fifty cars each. As we approached the moun- 
tains the size of the trains was reduced to about 
seven cars; but on reaching the western slope, the 
old number was restored. We crossed the Ohio 
at Benwood, on a pontoon bridge. Another lot 
of cars was awaiting us on the opposite side, and 
we went on through Columbus, Dayton, Indian- 
apolis, and Louisville. On this trip through Ohio 
and Indiana we were everywhere reminded that 
we were among friends. Our train stopped for 
a time at Columbus, Xenia, and Dayton, and it 
seemed as though the citizens of those towns could 
not do enough for us. At every station along the 
road great crowds of people were gathered, and 
cheered us as we passed along. 

We stopped briefly at Louisville, then went on 
again through Nashville, and past the battle-field 

[98] 



A PRIMITIVE RAILROAD 

of Murfreesboro. We debarked from the cars at 
Stevenson, Alabama, on Sunday morning, just a 
week from the time we had started. We cer- 
tainly were glad enough to be released after seven 
days and nights of railroad travelling, cramped up 
so tightly that there was scarce room either to sit 
up or lie down. Our arrival was none too soon. 
The long line of railroad from Nashville south- 
ward, had been practically unguarded, and the 
enemy's cavalry under General Wheeler suc- 
ceeded soon after our arrival in tearing it up in sev- 
eral places. 

We now had several weeks of racing up and 
down the railroad line, infantry after cavalry, and 
with the usual result. In the end, however, the 
road was cleared, with the whole "Red Star" 
Division distributed between Murfreesboro and 
Stevenson. Our Regiment was stationed at War- 
trace, where there was a junction with a short rail- 
road running to Shelby ville — the Nashville & 
Chattanooga Railroad. It was a curiosity. The 
cross-ties were about five feet apart, and the rails 
were of wood, surmounted by a running surface of 
light iron. Frequently the wooden rails would 

[99] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

spread, and then there would be a wreck; in fact, 
scarcely a day passed on which there would not 
be an accident of some kind. Large details of 
men from our Regiment were set to work to bring 
the road in repair, and by Christmas it was in fairly 
good condition. 

Shortly after we were established at Wartrace, 
I secured leave of absence to go to Chattanooga in 
search of my brother, who had enlisted in the 
Tenth Wisconsin. I had not heard of him since 
the battle of Chickamauga. My route was by 
rail to Bridgeport on the Tennessee River, then in 
a small captured Confederate steamer called 
*'Paint Rock," up the Tennessee to Chattanooga. 

The "Paint Rock" was loaded to its utmost 
capacity with hardtack for the starving Union 
men who held Chattanooga. The river route to 
that town had only recently been opened up by 
General Hooker, with the Eleventh Corps and 
the Second Division of our Corps. Previously it 
had been necessary to wheel all supplies sixty 
miles over a mountain road, where teams could 
scarcely haul the forage for their own trip. Even 

[ loo] 



NEAR CHATTANOOGA 

now the boats could run only to within eight miles 
of the city. 

The fifty-mile river trip brought me at the end 
of the day to the landing at Kelly's Ferry. Then 
I had an eight-mile walk before me to the camps, 
where I arrived late in the evening. I soon 
found the regiment or the small remnant of it that 
I was looking for; but then I learned that my 
brother was beyond doubt a prisoner in the hands 
of the enemy. 

I spent a day in visiting about Chattanooga. 
The enemy occupied a line from the Tennessee 
River, above town, to the point of Lookout Moun- 
tain below. At no place were they near enough 
to throw shells into the city, save from their heavy 
guns on Lookout Mountain. From these, shells 
came over all day at intervals of ten or fifteen 
minutes, and exploded high in the air over either 
our camps or the city. So far as I could see, how- 
ever, they did little damage. 

Shortly after my return to my Regiment, I was 
detailed to investigate the killing of a negro by a 
white man, not far from our post. The evidence 
showed that it was a most unprovoked murder, and 

[ loi ] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

I so reported. The man was thereupon arrested 
and sent to the provost marshal at TuUahoma. I 
never learned what was finally done with him. 
The curious thing about the affair was the frank 
astonishment of the man that anyone should take 
notice of the killing of a mere "nigger." 

Toward the end of November a large number 
of Confederate prisoners, who had been captured 
in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Mission- 
ary Ridge, were being sent northward over the 
railroad. We often had conversation with them 
while the trains were stopping at our station. Some 
were still defiant, but most of them were discour- 
aged, and many predicted that the Confederacy 
could not last six months longer. An unusually 
large number of deserters of all ranks from colonel 
downward, were also coming in, and they likewise 
professed to believe that the Confederacy was 
tottering. 

The Third Veteranizes 

In December a general order was issued from 
the War Department, providing for the reenlist- 

ment of veteran regiments. It provided for a lib- 

[102] 



A COURT MARTIAL 



eral bounty for all who reenlisted as veterans after 
two years' service; but it offered what was a 
greater temptation than anything else, the chance 
to go home for thirty days as a regiment, with the 
opportunity to recruit up to the full standard. I 
explained to my Company all the advantages of 
this arrangement. Their term of service would 
not expire until the end of June. By that time the 
fighting would probably be well over with. By 
reenlisting now they would secure the bounty, the 
thirty days furlough, and the honorable record of 
veteran soldiers, and it would be possible to pre- 
serve our organization from the beginning to the 
end of the war. 

Just about this time I was called away from 
camp to Tullahoma, to sit on the court martial of 
Colonel E. L. Price of the One Hundred Forty- 
Fifth New York Regiment, on charges of misbe- 
haviour in battle. When the court adjourned 
over the Christmas holidays and I returned to my 
Regiment, I was informed by my First Sergeant 
that the men of my Company had been talking over 
the matter of reenlisting, and that more than three- 
fourths of them were ready to do so if I would 

[103] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

stay with them. The contagion spread. By 
Christmas all but two of the officers, and 240 out 
of 300 enlisted men present with the Regiment, 
had, in the language of the day, "veteranized." 

On Christmas this surviving remnant of the 
thousand men of the Third, who had so gayly left 
the State two-and-a-half years before, started on 
their return. It was a beautiful day, and for us 
one of perfect happiness. We were going home 
with a record that none could surpass and few 
commands could equal. We were the first regi- 
ment from Wisconsin, and I believe the first in the 
army, to reenlist. 

At Madison the arms were stored, and the men 
scattered to their homes to enjoy their thirty-days' 
furlough. I was just in time to take part in a New 
Year's dance, and go home in the morning on the 
coldest day ever known in Wisconsin. 

The month of January, 1 864, which we spent 
in Wisconsin, was a season of continuous festivi- 
ties. The only drawback was the extreme cold, 
which to us who had just come from the South, 
seemed more severe than it had ever been be- 
fore. Everyone seemed to be determined to give 

[ 104] 



RECRUITING 

the returned soldiers the best time of their Hves. 
Some of the croakers thought it too gay for people 
who were engaged in a death struggle for the life 
of the Nation. Those of us, however, who had 
been at the front, were disposed to be merry while 
we could, and leave the future to care for itself. 
Recruiting was going on all the time. Our vet- 
erans proved the best recruitmg officers in the State. 
They brought in their brothers and cousins, school- 
mates and friends, so that when we were ready to 
return once more to the south, we had added 300 
men to our rolls, picked from the very flower of 
Wisconsin's citizenry. 

On February 2 the veterans of the Regiment as- 
sembled at Madison. On the 4th we were again 
on our way south, and reached Tullahoma the 
night of the 9th. On the 1 2th we started out for 
Fayetteville, the seat of Lincoln County, Tennes- 
see, where we arrived at noon on the following day. 
On our way we passed through Lynchburg, where 
there was pointed out to us the house, or rather the 
ruins of the house, which was said to have been 
the birthplace of Davy Crockett. At Mulberry, 
a little farther on, I met a middle-aged citizen who 

[105] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

said that he had never known what a United 
States flag looked like until he had seen one car- 
ried by our soldiers in this war. 

Reorganizing Lincoln County 

Lincoln County was one of the richest, as well 
as the most violent of Secession counties in Ten- 
nessee. Its people boasted that it had cast 2,500 
votes for Secession, and not one for the Union; 
the few Union men in the county had not dared to 
go to the polls. A few months previous to our 
coming a small detachment of Northern troops 
had been captured there by guerrillas. The 
prisoners had been taken to the bank of the Elk 
River and three of them deliberately mur- 
dered. A fourth had only escaped by leaping 
into the river and swimming off in the confusion. 
When he had reported the matter to headquarters, 
Colonel Ketcham of the One Hundred Fiftieth 
New York had been sent to collect an assessment 
of $30,000 from the citizens of the county for the 
benefit of the families of the murdered soldiers. 

Our mission in Lincoln County was to hunt 

down the guerrillas who infested it, and to care for 

[io6] 



ADMINISTERING JUSTICE 

the refugees from Chattanooga and other places 
in the rear of the army, who had lost their means of 
gaining a livelihood. We supported the refugees 
by forced levies of corn and bacon from the 
wealthy planters of the vicinity, while our 
mounted force soon disposed of the guerrillas, 
capturing a number and frightening the rest out 
of the county. We had a novel way of adminis- 
tering justice. For instance, about two months 
after our arrival a number of these young offenders, 
whose parents lived in the vicinity and were sub- 
stantial farmers, stole from a citizen mules valued 
at $400. The Colonel immediately assessed the 
amount on the fathers, and with the money thus 
collected paid for the mules. That was our pol- 
icy all through — to make the wealthy Confed- 
erates pay for the damage done by their lawless 
colleagues. And this method had a good effect, 
for it soon put an end to the thievery. 

Shortly after we arrived, our mounted men cap- 
tured a Confederate officer named Boone, a grand- 
son of the famous Daniel. On him was found a 
list of all the guerrillas in the county. When I ex- 
amined him, he told me that he had been sent to 

[107] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

muster these fellows into the Confederate army; 
but his plans were spoiled. Instead he went to 
Johnson's Island, a prisoner, and his little mem- 
orandum book remained in my possession. 

Among the names on the list were those of two 
Miller boys, whose mother and sister lived in town. 
The Captain of our mounted men, and several 
other officers, boarded with the family, for the 
people in Fayetteville were usually glad to take 
in Union officers as boarders, in order that they 
might secure from our rations the otherwise unob- 
tamable luxuries of sugar and coffee. Several 
days after the capture of Boone's list, the Captain 
brought m both of the young Millers as prison- 
ers. They were forwarded to Corps headquarters 
at Tullahoma. The elder, instead of being sent 
North as a prisoner of war, was tried by court 
martial and sentenced to be hanged in the public 
square of Fayetteville. That did not suit some 
of us; so we found means to send Mrs. Miller 
to Shelby ville, where she secured Judge Cooper, 
a well-known Unionist and former member of 
Congress, to go to Washington, and lay the case 

before President Lincoln. It was well known 

[io8] 



REORGANIZING A COUNTY 

that no death sentence was ever executed with the 
President's consent, if there was any reasonable ex- 
cuse for avoiding it. His usual magnanimity did 
not fail in this case, and the boy was sent North 
as an ordinary prisoner of war. 

When the President's amnesty proclamation 
was issued, we were given the duty of reorganizing 
Lincoln County under its provisions. I was ap- 
pointed provost marshal, and in that position ad- 
mmistered oaths of allegiance to several thousand 
repentant and unrepentant Secessionists. When 
the election was held, returns were made to me, 
and by me tabulated, and sent to the military 
governor at Nashville. Commissions were then 
issued by him to the officials who had been elected, 
so that when we left, the county was ready to re- 
sume civil government. 

' In administering the oath of allegiance, the de- 
mand for blanks was so great that the ordinary 
sources could not furnish a sufficient supply. It 
was necessary, therefore, for me to open a printing 
offixe. So I took possession of an old printing es- 
tablishment, and set several men to work. The 
press was broken down and the type badly "pi'd" ; 

[ 109] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

but we soon had the machinery repaired, and by 
combining the stock of three printing offices, se- 
cured sufficient type to run our establishment with 
success. . 

In addition to these other duties, I had to listen 
to everyone in the county who sought redress for a 
grievance of any kind. Some had had horses 
taken by our army, or by bushwhackers ; some had 
been robbed of money or other valuables; some 
wanted permits to carry firearms, which were of 
course never granted ; and others needed assistance 
from the Government to keep from starving. One 
man came with a case parallel to that of the 
woman who wanted a "pass to raise geese." He 
wanted a "pass to raise a crup." I told him to go 
on and raise his crop, or do whatever he pleased, 
so long as he remained loyal to the Government. 
He said his neighbors had told him he could not 
raise a crop without a permit from the Federals, 
and that every man who took the oath of allegiance 
was branded in the forehead with the letters 
"U. S.'' 

One day a woman came to me, who said she 

had heard that we paid $ 1 0,000 to the widows of 

[no] 



REORGANIZING A COUNTY 

men killed by guerrillas. I explained to her that 
we had done that only for the widows of three 
Union soldiers. I told her, however, that if she 
could give me any information about where the 
guerrillas could be found, we would capture and 
punish them. She said she did not know, but that 
she had heard some shots in the woods. She had 
not seen her man since, and she was sure they had 
killed him. After parleying awhile she started 
out of the door. But before she went out, she 
turned and called back to me, "That ai'nt the 
wust of 't; they stole my old mare, too!" 

When we first arrived at Fayetteville not a per- 
son was to be seen on the streets, although before 
the war it had been a place of 2,000 inhabitants. 
There was not a vestige of any kind of business 
left in the town. Even the stores and taverns were 
vacant. The people soon made their appearance, 
however, when they found that we had come to 
stay, and before very long we had established the 
most friendly relations with them. By the time we 
were ready to leave, almost every family in town 
had its friends among the soldiers. They were 

very sociable, and always seemed glad to have the 

[III] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

Federal officers call on them. The young ladies 
would sing and play the piano beautifully, and 
make things quite homelike for us after the routine 
of the day's work. Twenty years later, while 
passing through Fayetteville on my way to At- 
lanta, I received courtesies from a citizen who only 
knew me by reputation as one of the officers of the 
Third Wisconsin. 

It was curious to see what a difference slavery 
had made in the social life of these people. Every- 
where work was considered disgraceful for a 
white man, and as only the occupation of the 
*'nigger." In order to succeed socially, it was 
necessary to own slaves. The idea of hiring 
labor, or of being rich without negroes, was ap- 
parently incomprehensible. And in fact it was 
true that all of the people who had obtained any 
sort of success, intellectually or otherwise, had 
owned slaves. 

Most of the men who resided in the vicinity had 
served in the Confederate army. Some had been 
discharged on account of wounds or sickness, while 
others, and probably most of them, had deserted 
when they became sure that the fight was hopeless. 

[112} 



REORGANIZING A COUNTY 

My office was a common resort for these people 
after they had taken the oath of amnesty. They 
would sit around by the hour, and spin their yarns 
about the Confederate service. The recent desert- 
ers had to be sent to headquarters at Tullahoma for 
examination ; and as we could communicate only 
with a strong escort, I would sometimes have half 
a dozen of them paroled to report to me daily until 
I could arrange to send on a party. 

In all my dealings with these people, I found 
scarcely any who really desired the success of the 
Union cause. There were plenty of them, prob- 
ably the majority, who thought the Confederacy a 
failure, and wished to get back into the Union on 
the best possible terms ; but they still clung to their 
old ideas. However, that did not interfere with 
our friendship and the good time that we had 
while we were there. And when the day at 
length came when we were obliged to leave, I 
think that they really were, as they professed to be, 
sorry at our going. And well they might be, for 
the regiment of Tennessee Union Cavalry, that 
occupied the town after we left, proceeded at once 
to kill several of the most prominent men who had 

8 [113] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

not taken the amnesty oath, and at least one who 
had. 

On the morning of April 28, 1864, we said 
farewell to our Fayetteville friends and started out 
on the campaign which a year later was to end at 
Raleigh, North Carolina, with the surrender of 
Johnston's army and the end of the war. With us 
was a company of Tennessee Union Cavalry, com- 
manded by Captain Brixey, which had been sent 
to Lincoln County to hunt bushwhackers. On 
leaving Fayetteville they had taken a horse be- 
longing to Judge Chilcote, a prominent citizen, 
who had been of much assistance to me in the 
provost marshal's office in restoring civil govern- 
ment, and who had at the election been chosen 
county clerk. The Judge followed us, and asked 
to have his horse restored. Colonel Hawley of 
our Regiment at once compelled Captain Brixey to 
give it up. He did so with apparent reluctance, 
and then secretly sent a number of his men over a 
by-road to intercept the Judge on his return and 
kill him. This cowardly deed accomplished, the 
men rejoined their command. Brixey then pushed 
on ahead to TuUahoma, and on the next day left 

[114] 



A NEW CORPS 

for the mountains of East Tennessee. The mur- 
der was reported to us that night. The Colonel 
sent back Captain Gardner with his mounted men 
to investigate, but the murderers had fled as soon 
as their deed became known, and nothing more 
could be done. After this outrage, Brixey never 
dared to rejoin our army. Some time later he 
was killed by Confederates in northwestern 
Georgia. 

During our stay at Fayetteville our Corps and 
the old Eleventh of the Army of the Potomac 
were consolidated, and became known as the 
Twentieth Corps of the Army of the Cumberland. 
The command was given to General Hooker. 
Our portion of the army would very much have 
preferred General H. W. Slocum, who was sent 
to Vicksburg. In the reorganization we became 
the Second Brigade of the First Division, with 
General Thomas H. Ruger commanding the 
Brigade and General A. S. Williams command- 
ing the Division. At the suggestion of the offi- 
cers of the Eleventh Corps, our old badge, the five- 
pointed star, was retained as the badge of the new 
corps. 

[IIS] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

Opening of the Atlanta Campaign 

Our Regiment reached Tullahoma on April 30, 
to find that the rest of our Brigade had aheady 
gone to the front. We started out on the next day 
to join them, and on May 4 crossed the Tennessee 
River at Bridgeport. On the 7th we passed over 
the battle-field of Chickamauga, w^here signs of the 
conflict w^ere still everyw^here in evidence. On 
the night of the 8th we crossed the mountains by 
way of Nickajack Pass, and joined our Brigade 
at daylight the next morning. This passage over 
the mountains was interesting. The night was ex- 
tremely dark and perfectly quiet. The men in 
charge of the wagon train had placed lighted 
candles on the rocks along the road, at intervals of 
about a hundred feet, in order to guide themselves 
and those who came after. These were still flick- 
ering when we came along. 

Our march to Atlanta was now well under way. 
The enemy continually fell back, and in most 
cases without offering serious resistance. The 
three armies of General Sherman, marching in 

parallel lines, seemed to be able to carry every- 

[ii6] 



ATLANTA CAMPAIGN 

thing before them. On the 10th we again 
crossed the mountains at Snake Creek Gap, going 
into camp on the other side until the 13th. On 
the night of the 10th we were visited by a tre- 
mendous wind and rain storm, which blew down 
our tents, and raised the water in the creek so high 
that we had to move our camp or be drowned. 
At about this time, also, an order was read to the 
troops announcing the great success of the Army of 
the Potomac in the opening battles of the final 
campaign against Richmond. 

On the 1 4th we were moved to the extreme left 
to support General Howard, who was there en- 
gaged with the enemy. We arrived at about 
sundown, just as the Confederates were driving in 
a brigade of the Fourth Corps and threatening to 
capture a battery of artillery. As we moved for- 
ward in line of battle, ready to receive the ad- 
vancing enemy, General Williams called out to the 
fleeing soldiers of the Fourth Corps to get back 
out of the way, for he had a division there from 
the Army of the Potomac that would protect them. 
All of which goes to show that even major-gen- 
erals are human, and when they get a chance like 

[117] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

to exult over their rivals. We checked the ad- 
vance of the enemy without much trouble. 

At about noon on the 1 5th, General Butterfield, 
with our Third Division, moved forward to attack 
an earthwork and a four-gun battery, which the 
enemy held in his front. We moved forward on 
the left to support him; and encountering little op- 
position at first, advanced somewhat farther than 
the Third Division. We took position in the edge 
of a woods, where we made use of a rail fence and 
some logs to build a breastwork in anticipation of 
an attack, which the skirmish firing in front warned 
us was coming. We soon had sight of the ad- 
vancing enemy. A few volleys from us, how- 
ever, and they broke and ran. In a short time 
they again came up, with a new line. We dis- 
posed of that almost as quickly as the first. A 
third time they repeated the attempt, and again we 
beat them back. 

Now came the order to pursue. My Company, 
and the companies on my right, moved forward 
about two hundred yards in the woods. Sud- 
denly we found that we were on the flank of a 

Brigade that was still stubbornly fighting with 

[ii8] 



AN INCIDENT OF WAR 

troops of the Twenty-Third Corps and the left 
companies of our Regiment. They were in a 
peach orchard, the nearest of them not fifty yards 
away. I hastily wheeled my Company, and 
Company H to the left, and opened fire. At such 
short range, and in such a crowd, every shot must 
have counted. The Confederates did not wait 
for much, but skedaddled as fast as their legs could 
carry them. 

Just as the last of them were disappearing from 
sight, I saw a man in Confederate uniform come 
running toward my Company, hatless, but with gun 
in hand. I supposed that he was coming in to 
give himself up. He came within twenty yards 
of us, then apparently noticed for the first time 
that we were Yankees. He immediately started 
to run back. I called to him to surrender, but it 
only increased his speed. Finding that he did 
not stop, two of my men fired at him, and both hit 
him. Fie fell dead almost instantly upon the 
field. I went forward then and examined him. 
He was a mere boy, not over twenty years of age. 
In his pocket we found his order, not two weeks 
old, from the conscript officer of his district, noti- 

[119] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

fying him to join the army. I have seen fields of 
battle in front of our Regiment, covered over w^ith 
the dead, w^ithout experiencing the pang of regret 
that I felt for this poor lad who, scarcely out from 
home, and too frightened and confused to know 
what to do, thus sadly met his fate. 

The loss of our Regiment in this fight was one 
killed and thirty-one wounded. Many of the 
wounded subsequently died, among them Rev- 
erend John M. Springer, the Chaplain of the 
Regiment. When drafted in 1863, he had been 
a Methodist minister in Monroe, Wisconsin. Be- 
lieving this to be a call of duty he had refused to 
allow his church to secure a substitute, and had re- 
ported at Madison for service. When our Regi- 
ment was about to leave Wisconsin for the front, 
after the veteran furlough, we officers had been in- 
troduced to him in the Executive Chamber at the 
Capitol, where we had assembled on the invitation 
of the Governor. When sent for. Springer had 
been found doing sentinel duty before the gate of 
Camp Randall. We had elected him Chaplain, 
and he had joined us at Fayetteville as soon as he 
could secure his discharge as a private. On the 

[ 120] 



CONFEDERATES DISCOURAGED 

morning of the battle, when the prospects seemed 
good for a lively fight, he had come to me and 
asked for a musket and some ammunition, for he 
did not wish to be lurking in the rear while we 
were in danger at the front. At my suggestion, 
he had previously posted himself in the tactics, so I 
now told him to take the place of a Lieutenant in 
my Company. He was the first man hit, and died 
in the hospital a few days later. 

By a strange coincidence, our picket found on 
the field in our front the dead body of the Chap- 
lain of the Georgia Regiment with which we had 
been engaged. We were told by some of the 
wounded prisoners that he had been shot in coming 
up to recover the body of his son, a captain in the 
Regiment, who had been killed early in the fight. 

In this battle, for the first time in my experience, 
Confederate soldiers who might have escaped 
came in and gave themselves up as prisoners. I 
think as many as forty did this. They were all 
thoroughly discouraged, and the same feeling 
seems to have run through their whole army, for 
they were more quickly and easily beaten than I 
had ever seen them before. 

[ 121 ] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

It was understood on our part that in order to 
give the Army of the Tennessee time to get below 
Resaca and cut off their retreat, we were not to 
push the attack against the enemy. They were 
too quick for us, however; the next morning they 
had abandoned Resaca, leaving behind them six 
heavy guns and large quantities of provisions and 
ammunition. 

On the 1 9th we came up to them again at Cass- 
ville, where we drove them into their entrenched 
lines and occupied the town. We expected a 
fight in the morning, but once more they were gone, 
this time across the Etowah River. After a rest 
of four days at Cassville, we again went forward, 
crossing the Etowah on a pontoon bridge without 
resistance. 

On the 25th we had nearly reached Dallas 
when we were turned back to assist General 
Geary, who had encountered a division of Hood's 
Corps, entrenched on the Marietta road to our left, 
at a place called New Hope Church. On our 
arrival we found that Geary's Division had al- 
ready pushed back the enemy's skirmishers until 
the latter were thought to be in their main line of 

[ 122 ] 



UNDER FIRE 

works, from which position we were ordered to 
drive them. The country was heavily timbered, 
and underbrush so obscured the view that it was 
impossible to see in any direction more than a few 
rods. When we came within sight of the enemy 
we found that a six-gun battery was posted a little 
in front of their line of infantry. The latter 
awaited us behind a breastwork, evidently hastily 
constructed of logs and earth, nevertheless afford- 
ing fairly good shelter. As soon as we came 
within range, the battery opened on us with round 
shot and shell; then, as we came nearer, with 
grape and canister. But we pushed steadily on 
until we were less than sixty yards from them, 
when we halted; for we had lost so many men, 
and had become so disorganized in the march 
through the timber and brush that the impetus of 
our charge was gone. The regiments on both 
sides of us had already done the same. We 
sheltered ourselves as well as we could, behind 
trees and fallen timber, and opened fire on their 
batter3^ receiving a hot fire in return from their 
infantry. We succeeded, however, in driving off 
the Confederate gunners, and prevented the can- 

[ 123] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

non from being worked for the remainder of the 
day. 

Wounded and in Hospital 

When we had first come within range of the 
grape-shot, my scabbard had been struck and cut 
in two at a point just below where I grasped it 
with my left hand. Later, when my men had 
sheltered themselves and had commenced firing, 
I was again struck. I was at the time resting on 
one knee in a position where I could watch the 
battery, and direct our fire upon it, for I v/as de- 
termined that the enemy should not have an op- 
portunity to take it away so long as we had a 
chance to capture it. My attention had just been 
called to something on the left, when a bullet 
struck the front of my cap, cutting the figure *'3'* 
out of the bugle, and glancing from the bone, cut 
a gash across m}^ forehead. For a time I lost all 
interest in that battle. When I regained my feet, 
Colonel Hawley, who was standing near, told me 
to get back to the hospital. I succeeded in find- 
ing my way to a small ravine that we had crossed, 
thinking as I got back of the line, that there were 

[ 124] 



WOUNDED 

a thousand bullets flying, to every one nearer 
the front. At the small brook in the ravine, I 
tried to wash off the blood w^hich was blinding 
me, but had such poor success that I concluded 
to follow the Colonel's advice and have the wound 
dressed. I considered it not much of a clip, and 
thought that in three days at the most I would be 
back with my company. It was about two months 
before I rejoined, and a good many years before I 
entirely recovered. 

On my way back to the hospital, I met in suc- 
cession General Williams who commanded the 
Division, General Hooker who commanded the 
Corps, General Thomas who commanded the 
Army of the Cumberland, and General Sher- 
man who commanded the Department. Each 
stopped and asked if 1 was much hurt — when I 
told that it was only a scratch, they were eager 
for information as to the situation at the front. I 
explained that we had driven the artillerymen 
from their guns, but that the infantry in their 
breastworks had been too much for us. Then each 
kindly told me to go to the hospital. 

At the hospital I found Dr. Conley, our Regi- 
[125] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

mental Surgeon, who dressed my wound and gave 
me a blanket to lie down on. I got away to one 
side and tried to sleep, but the Doctor disturbed me 
so often to look at my wound that this was im- 
possible. I finally lost all patience with him and 
ordered him to let me alone ; but he afterwards ex- 
plained that he feared I would go to sleep and 
wake up in the next world. 

This fight is known in the North as the Battle 
of Dallas, or the Battle of Pumpkinvine Creek, and 
in the South as the Battle of New Hope Church. 
In the engagement, our Regiment lost eighteen 
men killed and ninety-two wounded. This loss 
was quite unevenly distributed among the com- 
panies. Mine had sixteen men severely wounded, 
two of whom subsequently died. Company A, 
on my left, had six men killed and twenty-one 
wounded. Captain Hunter of Company F was 
wounded by a canister shot, m one of his legs near 
the knee-joint, and died shortly after. Captain 
Ruger of the Brigade staff also received a severe 
wound in the knee, which incapacitated him for 
further service during the war. 

On the afternoon of the day following the bat- 

[126] 



WOUNDED 

tie, I thought I was strong enough to go back to my 
Regiment. So I started out, against the protests of 
the surgeons; but after going about a quarter of a 
mile, my legs gave out, and I was obliged to return 
and obey directions. I remained at the field hos- 
pital for about three and a half days. During 
most of that time the surgeons were busy at the 
amputating table. On the morning of the 29th all 
of the slightly wounded were sent off with the 
wagon train. The more seriously wounded were 
sent off late in the afternoon in the ambulances. 
Captains Hunter, Ruger, and I went in the same 
ambulance, I was on the seat with the driver. 

At Kingston, where we arrived on the 30th, 
a long train of freight cars for the slightly 
wounded, and hospitals cars for the severely 
wounded was waiting, ready to start for Chatta- 
nooga. Captain Hunter was, however, too ill to 
go, and I would not leave him, so we waited over 
together until June 2. The ride to Chattanooga 
was a very severe one for poor Hunter, and he ap- 
peared to be much the worse for it. He recovered 
temporarily under the careful treatment at Chatta- 
nooga, of Doctor Persons of the First Wisconsin 

[127] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

Cavalry, but on June 8 began to sink rapidly, and 
died on the afternoon of the following day. 

My wound was not dangerous, yet it was ser- 
ious enough to entitle me to a leave of absence. I 
took advantage of it to return for a pleasant week 
to my Wisconsin home; then rejoined my Regi- 
ment near the Chattahoochee River on July 1 7. 
During my absence it had followed the fortunes 
of the Twentieth Corps, having had no hard fight- 
ing and but few casualties on the picket line. The 
term of service of the men who had not reenlisted 
had expired on June 29, and they had been mus- 
tered out. The officers in the various regiments, 
however, who wished to be mustered out, found 
themselves conscripted for a longer term. Their 
applications had been approved until they had 
reached General Thomas; but he had forwarded 
them to Washington with recommendations for 
dishonorable discharge. Discovering this danger, 
the officers had withdrawn their applications. A 
number in the Twenty-Ninth Pennsylvania had, 
however, been dishonorably discharged under 
such circumstances, and at the time this seemed to 
us an injustice. 

[128] 



HEAVY LOSSES 

The Siege of Atlanta 

On the day that I rejoined the Regiment the 
army moved forward across the Chattahoochee 
River. During the next three days a farther ad- 
vance was made across Peach Tree Creek, and 
we were now but a few miles from the fortifica- 
tions of Atlanta. On the afternoon of the 20th, 
General Hood, the new Confederate commander 
who had succeeded Johnston, came out of his en- 
trenchments and made a furious attack on our 
lines. The brunt of it fell on our Corps, which 
was somewhat in advance of the others. Our 
Regiment being in the second line was not en- 
gaged, for the first line repulsed the enemy along 
the entire front. The fighting was very severe, 
the Confederates coming up to the attack again 
and again. The loss in our Corps was about 
2,000 killed and wounded ; that of the enemy 
must have been double that number. 

On the night of the 2 1 st I went on picket duty 
with instructions to advance my picket line if pos- 
sible, for the enemy's pickets were so close that 
their stray bullets were causing much annoyance 

9 [ 129 ] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

in our camp. We were not very successful during 
the night; but in the morning, when the whole 
Brigade picket line under Major Smith of the 
One Hundred Fiftieth New York, moved for- 
ward, the enemy had disappeared. As was now 
becoming quite usual, a number of their men re- 
mained behind to be taken prisoners. 

Major Smith's orders were to advance until he 
found the enemy. So we slowly pushed forward 
through their strong but abandoned works, and en- 
countered no serious opposition until within about 
a mile of their fortifications immediately surround- 
ing the city. We met their picket line on a hill, 
and drove it back a half mile, but they brought 
out against us such a strong force that we in turn 
were obliged to fall back, taking our stand on the 
hills where we had first met their pickets. From 
this position they did not seriously attempt to dis- 
lodge us. 

From our vantage we could see all of their 
manoeuvers. Apparently there were not more 
than 2,000 or 3,000 troops to prevent our entry 
into the city. I have always believed that if there 
had been someone high enough in command to 

[ 130 ] 



SIEGE OF ATLANTA 

have used the troops where I was that day, At- 
lanta could have been captured much more easily 
than it was six weeks later. At about six o'clock 
our Corps came up, and our picket line, once more 
moving forward, drove the Confederate skirmish- 
ers to within two hundred yards of their forts. 

The next day a battery of twenty-pound parrot 
guns was planted on the hill and commenced 
throwing shells into the city over our heads. The 
enemy replied with spirit, and we received many 
of their compliments that were intended for the 
battery. Our men protected themselves by throw- 
ing up an earthwork in front of the camp, with a 
ditch behind it wide enough and deep enough to 
shelter all in case of necessity. The officers all 
had heavy earth barricades built in front of their 
tents, and these furnished fairly good protection. 

I remember to have been one night in the Col- 
onel's tent when the shells were flying pretty 
lively. We were just discussing whether his em- 
bankment would stop a shell, when one came 
along and buried itself in the ground a little in 
front without exploding. The Colonel went out 
and found that it had gone two feet into the 

[131] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

ground. One of the other officers present ex- 
pressed the opinion that it would have gone 
through the breastwork if it had struck properly. 
The words were scarcely out of his mouth when 
another shell struck the work, penetrating about 
two-thirds of the way, and exploding without 
damage. 

At another time we were not so fortunate. A 
shell struck the barricade of Captain Orton of 
Company K, passed through, and exploded in the 
tent, mortally wounding him and seriously wound- 
ing Lieutenants Barager, Blanchard, and 
Schweers, who were with him. Lieutenant Bar- 
ager served until the end of the war; but a few 
years after its close, he became, as a consequence 
of that shock, a physical and mental wreck. 

The enemy's sharpshooters were close enougti 
to us to keep dropping their bullets incessantly 
into our camp. It was at first rather annoying to 
have them come pattering around whenever any- 
one moved, but in time we became so accustomed 
to the missiles, that we went about our ordinary 
business as though there were no Confederates 
within forty miles. On one occasion the Thir- 

[ 132] 



SIEGE OF ATLANTA 

teenth New Jersey went out in front of the line and 
captured thirty-five of the enemy's pickets, and 
burned the houses where the marksmen had been 
stationed. 

On July 28 General Hooker was at his own 
request relieved of the command of our Corps. 
He had taken offence at being jumped by General 
Howard for the command of the Army of the 
Tennessee, after the death of General McPher- 
son in the battle of July 22. I do not believe that 
the highest officers generally sympathized with 
Hooker, but the Corps as a whole felt that his loss 
was a serious blow. He had large personal influ- 
ence on his troops. During an active campaign, 
virtually every soldier in his Corps saw him almost 
daily. If there was a picket line to be established, 
he personally examined it; if an assault was 
made on the enemy, he was with the foremost, al- 
ways brave to the extreme of recklessness. He 
was, moreover, careful of the welfare of his men. 
He made his commissaries attend strictly to busi- 
ness, and his Corps would often be furnished with 
the delicacies of army rations when others were 
short or had nothing but hardtack and salt pork. 

[133] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

It was a common remark all through the army 
that Joe Hooker fed his men the best, and fought 
them the best, of any of the corps commanders. 
Of course his men worshipped him and under him 
were invincible; for the same reason the enemy 
dreaded him worse than anything else mortal. 

The newspapers of the day said that the ap- 
pointment of General Howard was the work of 
President Lincoln. But it was reported in the 
Corps, that General Sherman had been the prime 
mover. It was freely whispered among us that 
Sherman, with all his great talents and acknowl- 
edged ability, was affected with the same weak- 
ness that was said to have troubled Napoleon — 
the not being able to look with complacency on the 
great personal popularity of a subordinate. Sher- 
man was reported to have allowed this feeling to 
break forth into positive insult of General Hooker 
and his Corps in the presence of subordinates. 
For instance, on the night after the battle of Peach 
Tree Creek, before any returns of casualties had 
been made, Hooker told Sherman that he had 
lost that day nearly 2,000 men. "Oh pshaw!" 
answered Sherman, "that's nothing; they'll all be 

[134] 



SIEGE OF ATLANTA 

back in the morning.*' Later it was found that 
1 ,700 members of the Corps had been killed or 
wounded, and that they had successfully repulsed 
the whole Confederate army with a reported loss 
to the latter of 6,000. 

Before leaving. General Hooker invited all the 
colonels in the Corps to call on him, and told 
them frankly his reasons for resigning. He said 
that during the whole campaign he had been sub- 
jected to unbearable insults and indignities, and 
his Corps and its performances had been under- 
rated and disparaged. And now, to have pro- 
moted over him a junior officer from this Depart- 
ment, whose rank and service were far below his, 
was the last straw ; his reputation as a soldier and 
his honor as a man would not, he said, admit of his 
remaining. 

The enemy's picket line had been temporarily 
quieted by the advance of the Thirteenth New 
Jersey, but was now again annoying us. These 
pickets were on a ridge about two hundred yards 
in front of their main line of works, and not more 
than four hundred yards from our camp. They 
had lines of pits dug all along their position and 

[135] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

could at any time communicate with their main 
line. Our pickets were also located in pits, but 
could only be relieved at night. It was deter- 
mined to reverse this order of things. So at day- 
light on July 30, at a preconcerted signal, our 
whole Brigade picket line, under command of 
Lieutenant-Colonel Morse of the Second Massa- 
chusetts, jumped out of their pits, crossed the in- 
tervening space at a run, and captured the enemy's 
entire line, numbering seven officers and ninety- 
seven men. 

A regiment was immediately sent out to reen- 
force our men, and breastworks were hastily 
thrown up. From their forts and main breast- 
works, the enemy poured into us a shower of shot 
and shell ; but our men held their position all day, 
many of them firing as much as two hundred 
rounds of ammunition. At night the position was 
made impregnable against anything save a move- 
ment in large force; and in the morning the en- 
emy were compelled to withdraw their artillery 
and close the embrasures of their forts. 

For some weeks there was not much change in 
the situation, so far as we were concerned. There 

[136] 



SIEGE OF ATLANTA 

was much hard work for the men in the trenches, 
and they were all getting anxious for the capture 
of Atlanta. I believe nine-tenths of them would 
rather have fought the matter out in an open bat- 
tle than to have kept on scraping and shoveling 
to dig them out. It seemed to us at the time that 
between our army and that of the Confederates, 
there had been enough dirt dug, from Louisville 
to Atlanta, to have built all the railroads in the 
United States. 

For a time in our advanced position, firing on 
the picket line was constant, and there were many 
casualties. In a week or two, however, a sort of 
truce was established, and firing ceased. Just be- 
fore I had rejoined my Regiment on the Chatta- 
hoochee, our pickets had been quite friendly with 
the pickets of the enemy. They had traded coffee 
for tobacco, and had offered to take letters and 
send them to Union prisoners in their hands. I 
should at this time have liked to send a letter to my 
brother. But now they would not go as far as 
that; nothing would induce them to meet us be- 
tween the picket lines for trading; to all our ad- 

[137] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

vances they replied that their orders forbade them 
to do so. 

On August 25 important changes were made 
in the disposition of our troops. Our Corps was 
withdrawn from before Atlanta and moved back 
to the Chattahoochee River. The rest of the 
army was moved around to the south of Atlanta, 
temporarily abandoning its communications; this 
was in order, by threatening his flank, to compel 
Hood to come out of his works and fight us in the 
open. 

Throughout that day our heavy guns poured a 
constant stream of shot and shell into the city. As 
soon as darkness had settled down on the camps, 
we silently folded our tents and moved back. I 
had been on picket duty that night; it was still and 
clear, and the slightest sound could be heard at a 
great distance. As I passed along the picket line, 
from man to man, and gave them the word to fol- 
low instructions — which were for each man, as I 
passed him, to leave his post and go back silently 
to the rear — I could hear the Confederates chang- 
ing their relief just a little in my front. In one case 
I heard the old sentinel tell the new one to "keep 

[138] 



SIEGE OF ATLANTA 

a sharp watch on those Yanks over there,** for 
they were up to something and he believed they 
were going to attack. 

At the railroad bridge over the Chattahoochee, 
where we took position, earthworks had already 
been built. We strengthened them and built new 
ones, so that by the night of the 26th we were 
in condition to fight the whole of Hood's army. 
Hood was, however, too busy south of Atlanta, 
where Sherman now was, to trouble us; and we 
had several days of complete quiet. It was a great 
relief, after our experiences in the trenches, to be 
able to walk around without hearing the bullets 
whistle about our ears. Not the least of our enjoy- 
ment was, to have a good river close at hand to 
bathe in. 

During our stay here, General Slocum arrived 
and took command of the Corps. When he made 
his first tour around the camp, he was given a royal 
reception by his old command. They had all 
been anxious to have as their leader someone who 
had been identified with them in the Army of the 
Potomac. With that army they had won their 

[139] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

laurels, and they wished still to be known as a 
part of it. 

Slocum was a very different type of man from 
Hooker. The latter was brilliant and dashing, 
and in the excitement of battle his ardor and per- 
sonal courage carried him where the fire was 
hottest. Slocum, on the contrary, reminded one of 
the descriptions of Marlborough. Cool and unim- 
passioned he directed a battle as he would a re- 
view. Without particularly avoiding danger, he 
would not rush recklessly into it. Hooker was an 
inveterate boaster. Slocum usually said nothing. 
I think most men would have considered Hooker 
the better leader, and Slocum the better man. 

Late on the night of September 1 , while I was 
on picket duty, I heard in the direction of Atlanta 
what I at first thought was artillery. The rum- 
bling kept increasing in intensity until it seemed 
like the heaviest firing I had ever heard. Finally, 
a number of terrific explosions lit up the air. At 
six miles distance they seemed like bright flashes 
of lightning. I knew then that the enemy were 
blowing up their powder magazines. I supposed, 

[ 140] 



ATLANTA EVACUATED 

however, that Sherman was fighting his way into 
Atlanta from the south. 

At daylight a reconnoitering party was sent out 
toward the city. They found it evacuated, ex- 
cept for a small rear guard of cavalry which was 
soon driven out. The remainder of the Corps 
moved up in the afternoon, our Regiment reaching 
the city at about dark. Sherman's flanking move- 
ment had been completely successful. He had 
met Hood on the Macon Railroad, near Jonesboro, 
and had beaten him terribly. The Confederate 
commander had been obliged to evacuate At- 
lanta at once, blowing up eighty cars of ammu- 
nition which had been cut off by the capture of the 
railroad at Jonesboro. He had been compelled to 
destroy, also, the large rolling mill of the city, 
which was said to have been the only mill in the 
South where plating for gunboats could be manu- 
factured. 

We found more Union sentiment in Atlanta 
than anywhere else in the South. As our Brigade 
entered the city, at about nine o'clock at night, 
many of the women brought out buckets of water 
for us to drink. They were very bitter against 

[141] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

Hood's army, which they said had robbed them 
of everything that could be carried off, with the 
excuse that the Yankees would steal it anyway. 
They were agreeably disappointed to find that the 
Yankees did not rob them of a thing. 

Immense quantities of tobacco were abandoned 
by the Secessionist citizens who left town. This 
fact ruined the sutlers' trade in that article. On 
the day before Atlanta fell, tobacco sold in our 
camps at a dollar a plug, and fifteen cents for cig- 
ars. On the day after, plug tobacco passed about 
for five cents, and cigars were twenty-five cents a 
hundred. Our men found tobacco in every con- 
ceivable place. One lot of twenty boxes was dug 
out from under a big ash-heap. It was, however, 
the only plunder obtained, for the most stringent 
orders were issued against pillaging occupied 
houses. 

The effects of the Union bombardment could 
everywhere be seen in the city. Almost every 
house had the marks on it of shot and shell. One 
man showed me a dozen shells that had struck in 
his garden. The families remaining in the city had 
all built in their yards bombproofs, to which they 

[142] 



A COMPLETE REST 

had fled for safety whenever the shelling was in 
progress. 

On September 6 Sherman's army came back 
from Jonesboro, and went into camp in the vicinity 
of town. For a time we enjoyed the luxury of 
complete rest, after our four months of continuous 
campaignmg. On September 23 our Regiment 
received from Wisconsin 200 fresh recruits, who 
had just been secured under the draft. Every one 
was a substitute, and a splendid lot of men they 
were physically, representing almost every nation 
in Europe — English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, Ger- 
mans, French, Norwegians, and I don't know 
how many others. Some of them could not speak 
a word of English. Over a dozen were full- 
blooded Chippewa Indians, who until they put on 
the uniforms of the United States Army, had 
never worn the clothing of civilized people. They 
were all excellent raw material, and in the course 
of time made good soldiers. I recall only two of 
the entire 200 who deserted. 

About the first of October, Hood set out on his 
trip to the North, in the attempt to starve us out of 
Atlanta. On October 3 Sherman started after him 

[143] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

with all of the army except our Corps, which was 
left to hold the town. Our camps were now 
changed around so as to defend the city on a 
shorter line. Our Brigade was moved from the 
south to the northwest side, and set to work to 
build new breastworks, or rather to rebuild the old 
ones of the Confederates. 

The enemy succeeded in getting upon our rail- 
road to the North, and for about twenty days we 
were completely cut off without news or provisions. 
However, they had left us the whole of the coun- 
try southward to forage in; and this, together with 
the rice we had captured in the city, and the *'beef 
dried on the hoof," as the men called the cattle 
that were driven in, kept us a long way from starv- 
ing. Every week our forage trains would run out 
into the country to the south, and gather in from 
300 to 700 wagon-loads of corn, besides living, 
while they were out, on the best that the land 
afforded. Moreover, we had our provisions all to 
ourselves ; for on September 1 Sherman had or- 
dered all the citizens of the town to leave either to 
the North or to the South. 

[144] 



FORAGING 

On October 1 1 our Regiment went out for the 
first time on a foraging expedition. There were 
2,500 men in the detachment, and a train of about 
300 wagons. About fifteen miles south of At- 
lanta we found plenty of corn for the animals; 
and for the men, abundance of sweet potatoes and 
other dainties not laid down in the army menu. 
In two days we had our wagons laden with all 
that could be hauled away. About a fortnight 
later we went out again and brought in over 800 
wagons of corn. 

The forage which we thus gathered was the 
salvation of our animals and beef cattle. The 
mules had been on half rations of grain all sum- 
mer, quite without hay, and the whole country in 
the vicinity of Atlanta had been grazed over until 
it was as bare as a city street. The beeves that 
had been driven down from Louisville, had for 
weeks nothing to eat save the leaves and sprouts 
on the bushes. It was a standing joke among the 
men that the commissary always killed for beef 
those animals that could not survive until the next 
day. 

10 [ 145 ] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

The March to the Sea 

On October 29 came the first through trains 
from Chattanooga, after the movement of Hood to 
the North. On the same day came orders to re- 
duce baggage and prepare for marching. Soon, 
rumors were spreading about the camp that we 
were to start on a fifty days' campaign, without 
communications. On November 4 we were ready 
to move. I wrote numerous letters of good-bye to 
friends at home, telling them that they would 
hear from me next at Charleston or Savannah. I 
hoped that it would be Charleston, for I wanted 
the people of South Carolina who started the war 
to feel its effects and to reap their share of the hor- 
rors. 

On November 5 we started out and marched 
three miles from town. The next day, however, 
we returned in order to wait until the Army of the 
Tennessee might be paid off. This gave us a 
chance to vote in the Presidential election, which 
we had come very near missing. Our Regiment 
gave Lincoln 304 votes and McClellan 21 . For 

another full week we remained in Atlanta, our 

[146] 



MARCH TO THE SEA 

Regiment being occupied the entire time in tear- 
ing up railroad tracks and destroying everything 
of value in the city. By the time we were ready 
to leave, Atlanta was worth little more to the Con- 
federates than any other piece of ground of similar 
size. On November 1 5 we started out in ear- 
nest on the now famous "March to the Sea." Our 
last view of Atlanta, the prize for which we had 
so long struggled, was a column of dense smoke 
from its burning buildings; we had destroyed 
everything in town except the churches and private 
residences. 

Our expedition numbered about 50,000 men, 
under the command of Sherman. Thomas's army 
remained behind to look after Hood. We took 
with us only about twenty days' rations, for the 
country through which we passed was expected 
to furnish the remainder of our needs. The army 
proceeded in two columns — the right wing under 
Howard making for Macon; the left under Slo- 
cum making for Augusta. Each corps, also, 
took a different route in order to be able to subsist 
more easily on the country. 

Our Corps proceeded along the Augusta rail- 
[147] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

road, which we destroyed as we went along by 
burning the ties and twisting the heated rails. 
Parts of the country were poor and furnished little 
forage. Other portions, however, compensated 
by giving us an abundance of sweet potatoes and 
pork, with occasional lots of corn meal, flour, and 
sorghum, and, for the first arrivals on the planta- 
tion, chickens and turkeys. On our route we 
found plenty of good horses and mules, and all 
the forage that we could carry off. Occasionally, 
also the enterprising forager would capture some 
apple-jack or corn whiskey. 

At Madison we turned and took the road to 
Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia. Geary's 
Division, however, followed up the railroad to the 
Oconee River, and destroyed the Oconee bridge. 
We entered Milledgeville on the 22nd without 
opposition, and camped in the state-house yard. 
During our stay, our Regiment and the One Hun- 
dred Seventh New York guarded the city. 
I took up my quarters with an acquaintance of one 
of my Wisconsin friends, and saw to it that his 
house and family were not molested. He had 
several hundred bales of cotton stored near town, 

[148] 



MARCH TO THE SEA 

which Sherman had consented to have bonded; 
but some zealous officer or officious "bummer/* 
had set fire to it before it could be saved. 

Upon our approach to Milledgeville, Governor 
Brow^n of Georgia, had released all of the convicts 
in the State Prison at that place. In celebration 
of their freedom, their first act was to destroy the 
old prison. Our first work was to destroy the 
Milledgeville arsenal, in which was stored a large 
quantit}'^ of Confederate arms and ammunition. 
We carried out and threw into the river, all of the 
ammunition in the magazine, and burned up all of 
the arms and equipment. Besides several thou- 
sand stands of good arms, there were a lot of old- 
fashioned rifles and shot-guns, and thousands of 
pikes and bowie knives that had been manufac- 
tured by the State for the militia, with which to 
repel Yankees. In the state-house were millions 
of dollars of Georgia State money, in bills of all 
denominations and to these the men helped them- 
selves without limit. All of the cotton in the vi- 
cinity that could be burned without endangering 
good buildings, was destroyed, and that which 
was stored in the city was bonded not to be turned 

[ 149] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

over to the Confederate Government, or used for its 
benefit. I was sent out w^ith a detachment of men 
to search the stores for tobacco, and found enough 
to load several w^agons, w^hich kept the army sup- 
plied with that article until we reached Savannah. 

From Milledgeville we marched eastward 
toward Sandersville, through a very poor country. 
At Buffalo Creek, a swampy stream about eight 
miles from Sandersville, we found that the seven 
bridges crossing it had been burned — the negroes 
told us that this had been done by the people of 
Sandersville. We were delayed about three 
hours in repairing the bridges, so did not arrive at 
Sandersville until the next morning. For the last 
two days we had been on slim rations, and San- 
dersville was well supplied. Of course there was 
a general rush for eatables, and the town was soon 
raided. The citizens hurried to Sherman to make 
complaint and get protection. 

He turned on them and asked, "Which of you 
was it who set fire to those bridges yesterday?" 
They all denied having done it, but admitted that 
it had been done by citizens of the town. 
"Well," said he, "those that make war must take 

[150] 



MARCH TO THE SEA 

the consequences," which was all the consolation 
they got. Later, we found the man who fired the 
bridges; he was promptly arrested and his prop- 
erty burned. 

As we entered Sandersville we had a sharp 
skirmish with Wheeler's Confederate Cavalry, in 
which two of them were killed. Our Indians 
seemed to think it was not exactly right to leave 
the dead bodies with their scalps on. They soon 
fell into the civilized custom of making war, how- 
ever, and did not afterward express any desire to 
take scalps. 

From Sandersville we turned south until we 
reached the Georgia Central Railroad at Tennille 
Station. We burned the railway buildings there, 
and proceeded along the line, tearing it up as we 
went along. 

On November 28 we passed near the home of 
the Honorable Herschel V. Johnson.^ By prod- 



^ H. V. Johnson was born in Burke County, Georgia, in 1812. 
He served his Stale as Federal Senator from 1 848 to 1 849, and as 
Governor from 1853 to 1857. In 1 860 he was nominated for the 
Vice- Presidency on the ticket of Stephen A. Douglas. He opposed 
to the last the secession of Georgia, but ultimately cast his lot with 

[151] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

ding into the ground with their ramrods, some of 
our foragers found there a lot of more or less valu- 
able papers and letters, which had for safe-keep- 
ing been buried in his cabbage patch. Some of 
the letters from his son, who was an officer on 
Hood's staff, afforded us much amusement. Our 
mess forager found here, also, a stock of flour that 
lasted until we reached Savannah. 

Thus far, we had almost always found suf- 
ficient provisions along the line of march to feed 
the command fairly well. Now, however, we 
were obliged to send out strong parties of foragers 
for long distances on our flanks, to search the coun- 
try in order to get enough to eat. Wherever we 
went we destroyed everything that might be of 
value to the enemy. On the 29th, near Bostwick, 
we bumed up millions of feet of bridge timber, all 
got out and framed for bridges, that the Confed- 
erates expected to build when the Yankees were 



his State, and was elected to the Confederate Senate. After the 
war he was active in securing the restoration of Georgia to her 
political rights in the Union. In 1 866 he was again chosen to the 
Federal Senate, but was unable to serve under the reconstruction 
acts of Congress. He died in Jefferson County, Georgia, in 1880. 

[152] 



BEFORE SAVANNAH 

driven out. I noticed that some of the timbers 
were marked Strawberry Plains and Chatta- 
nooga Creek. 

On December 3 our column crossed the Mil- 
len & Augusta Railroad near Millen, and de- 
stroyed as much of it as we could. We were 
now in a level, sandy country, thickly covered 
with pine timber, and plantations were few and 
scattered. On the 4th we heard cannonading in 
the distance, which was said by citizens to be 
at Charleston, South Carolina, seventy miles 
away. On the 7 th we found our road for a dis- 
tance obstructed with felled timber, which, how- 
ever, so little delayed the march that those in the 
rear would not have known of it. On the 8th, 
after passing Springfield, the trains and pack- 
mules were left behind, with the Third Division 
as a guard, while the First and Second Divisions 
pushed on rapidly toward Savannah. 

In Front of Savannah 
We encountered the enemy in force for the 
first time fourteen miles from Savannah, in Mon- 
teith Swamp, where they had built an earthwork 

[153] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

across the road and felled trees in front of it. The 
First Brigade of our Division was sent around to 
their left, and our Brigade to their right, while the 
Third Brigade moved forward on the center. Our 
plan was to hold their attention to the front, while 
we got around on their rear. They discovered us 
in time, however, to escape. Captain Kleven of 
Company H, who with his skirmishers, was in 
advance of our Brigade, made a rapid movement 
forward as soon as he saw the enemy falling back, 
and succeeded in capturing three prisoners. The 
First Brigade opened fire at about the same time, 
sending a few bullets over our way, and severely 
wounding in the foot. Captain Buck of Company 
B. The Third Brigade also came up in time to 
claim a share in the honor of capturing the three 
prisoners. Finally, to settle the dispute, the pris- 
oners themselves were brought to Division head- 
quarters, where they pointed out Captain Kleven 
as their captor. 

At Monteith Station we captured the post- 
office and a considerable mail. The letters, which 
were mostly written by the soldiers whom we 

[154] 



BEFORE SAVANNAH 

had tried to capture the day before, afforded the 
men an abundance of fun. 

On the 1 0th we marched to within about four 
miles of Savannah, where we were stopped by the 
entrenched enemy. While we were getting into 
line, a detail of foragers, gathered along the banks 
of the Savannah River, spied a small steamer 
coming up the stream from the city. They hid 
themselves along the shore until the boat was di- 
rectly opposite, when they opened a musketry fire 
and compelled the craft to surrender. It proved to 
be a Confederate dispatch boat on its way up the 
river to warn the fleet that Sherman and his army 
had arrived. The fleet did not receive the warn- 
ing, and interesting developments followed. The 
men who had captured the prize did not know its 
value, and after stripping it of everything they 
wanted, set fire to it. 

The country between our lines and those of the 
enemy was a big rice plantation, which overflowed 
at every high tide, and which could be kept under 
water by closing the flood-gates. The only means 
of access to the city were the narrow causeways 
built through this swamp. At the point where we 

[155] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

were located, the Savannah River is divided by 
Argyle Island into tw^o channels, the main or nav- 
igable one being near the Georgia shore. The 
island is about ten miles long, and at our end some- 
thing like a mile vs^ide. It w^as occupied by a large 
rice plantation, w^hich naturally overflow^ed 
about two feet at high tide, but which had been 
ditched and diked so that the flow was regulated 
at the flood-gates. If we could control these, we 
could keep the island passable. The plantation 
buildings were situated on the east side, near the 
channel, where a number of acres rose high 
enough above the general surface to be safe from 
overflow. 

On the evening of the 1 1 th our Regiment was 
ordered across to Argyle Island. There were on 
hand, but two or three skiffs, and only a portion of 
the men could be brought over that night. In the 
morning the crossing was being continued, when 
suddenly the discovery was made that three 
steamers were coming around the bend of the 
river on their way to Savannah. Owing to the 
vigilance of our foragers on the previous day, they 

[156] 



A NAVAL BATTLE 

had received no warning of the presence of Sher- 
man's army. 

Captain Winegar of Battery M, First New 
York Artillery, had his rifled guns in position on 
a slight elevation along the shore, where he com- 
manded the river for a stretch of nearly a mile. 
As soon as the steamers, which were a part of 
Commodore Tattnall's Mosquito Fleet, came 
into plain view, he opened on them. They prob- 
ably had never before been under fire for their 
crews seemed confused. The first craft, which 
was a gunboat, commenced immediately backing 
and turning. The second, the armed tender 
"Resolute," started to do the same, but was run 
into by the third, and so badly crippled that she 
drifted ashore against Argyle Island. The other 
two vessels managed to escape up the river. 

While the miniature naval battle was going on, 
our men who were on the island, under command 
of Captain Barager, had hastened to the scene. 
When the "Resolute" drifted ashore, they were on 
hand to prevent the officers and crew from making 
their escape in small boats, as they had started to 
do. There were twenty prisoners in all. We 

[157] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

afterwards had a fine lot of fun listening to the 
officers as they accused one another of being the 
cause of the disaster. The "Resolute" was towed 
over to the Georgia shore, near the battery, but 
could not be repaired in time to be of any service 
in our future operations on the island. 

The question of rations was at this time becom- 
ing vital. One day's allowance had been issued 
to us on the day after our arrival in front of Savan- 
nah. We were, therefore, on the lookout for any- 
thing that might serve to supplement our supplies. 
As soon as my Company had come across to the 
island, we took the shortest route to the planta- 
tion buildings on the east side. Not a thing was 
left; those who had come before us had already 
absorbed everything. But at the landing I found 
a good six-oared boat that would carry about ten 
men besides the rowers. Impressing a crew of 
negroes to row the boat, I started for a plantation 
on the other side of the river, about half a mile up, 
thinking that I would be the first man of Sher- 
man's army to invade South Carolina. On land- 
ing, however, I was told by the blacks that two of 
our "bummers" had been there the day before, 

[158] 



CAPTURING A PLANTATION 

and in an altercation with the plantation hands 
had killed one of them. The funeral was just 
going on when we arrived. Subsequent events 
made me believe that Wheeler's Cavalry, and not 
our men were responsible for this tragedy. 

I placed a sentinel out on the only road by 
which a mounted force could approach, and then 
began a search for eatables. We soon were re- 
warded by a good supply of sweet potatoes and 
sorghum. In the boat-house we found a fine lot 
of boats ; as these were especially valuable for our 
purposes, we shoved them all out into the river to 
float down to our landing on the island. We had 
just loaded up our supplies, when my sentinel came 
running in with the report that a large force of cav- 
alry were coming. We hastily pulled back to the 
island and waited for them; but they did not 
come to close quarters and soon retired. 

Three days later I was sent out with Captain 
Barager's Company and my own to take pos- 
session of this plantation. We knew that the 
enemy now held it in some force, but we did not 
know how strong they were. I had secured boats 
enough on our first raid to be able to take over both 

[159] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

of our companies at one time. We started in the 
morning, when it was as yet scarcely light, hoping 
to come upon the enemy unexpectedly. Their 
sentinels discovered us, however, and fired on us 
while crossing. We landed about a quarter of a 
mile from the plantation buildings and rapidly 
pushed forward. I sent Barager with his Com- 
pany to the right, while I took the direct course to 
the rice mill, in which the enemy were sheltered. 
The country was broken up into a mass 'of 
ditches, dykes, and canals. We found that our 
only road was along a narrow dyke, and that we 
should either have to return or charge them in 
single file. We did not retreat. In less time than 
it takes to tell this story, we had the mill. They 
gave us one volley and hit nobody. We did not 
fire a shot. They escaped with their guns and 
ammunition, but we captured all their provisions, 
including their breakfast cooking on the fire. For 
the first time in three days we had all that we 
wanted to eat. Colonel Hawley came over soon 
after, with three more companies, but toward night 
the Confederates appeared in such force that we 
again withdrew to the island. 

[i6o] 



ATTACKED 

The next morning the enemy brought down a 
section of artillery to the Smith Plantation, as it 
was called, and commenced shelling our island 
camp. I was sent with my Company to get as 
close as possible to them on our side of the river, 
and either silence them or drive them off. I got 
up within about a hundred and fifty yards of 
them and opened fire. They immediately turned 
their guns on us, and for a few minutes gave it to 
us hot. We had good shelter, however, and lost 
only one man — John Furlong, a veteran of Com- 
pany E. It took me about twenty minutes to 
drive off the battery, but their infantry held out 
all day. 

On the ] 9th the whole Brigade crossed over to 
the Smith Plantation, with a section of artillery. 
Entrenchments were built at all commanding 
points, and preparation made to hold the position. 
On the 20th Colonel Hawley made a reconnois- 
sance in force toward Union Causeway, the only 
Confederate outlet from Savannah, but found the 
enemy in such strength that he could not reach it. 
But from our position we could see the lines of 
their wagons leaving the city. On the morning of 
11 [ i6i ] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

the 2 1 st it was found that the enemy had evacu- 
ated Savannah, and our troops moved in and took 
possession. 

We now received orders to recross the river to 
the Georgia side and march to Savannah. We 
had nothing but flatboats to cross in, and a strong 
wind was against us, so that we made slow prog- 
ress while our Regiment covered the crossing. 
When all the rest had passed over, and we were 
about half embarked, the enemy swarmed down 
upon us by the thousand. They had us sur- 
rounded on three sides, with a river behind; and 
our chances for seeing Savannah were not brilliant. 
Nevertheless, we faced about and prepared to 
fight them. Our friends of the Second Massa- 
chusetts came, without orders, back to our assist- 
ance, and placed themselves where they could 
cover our flanks. We were sheltered behind a 
dyke, and the enemy could not get at us save by 
charging across an open rice field; this they did 
not have the nerve to do, so that when darkness 
settled down we got off safely to the island. I 
think there was not a man in our command, but 

[162] 



END OF THE MARCH 

thanked his lucky stars that it was not some of 
Lee's veterans that had us in that fix that night. 

In Savannah 

The next day, we crossed without interruption 
from the island to the Georgia shore, which we 
reached by four o'clock, and then marched toward 
Savannah. We went into camp on the bank of 
the river about two miles from the city, and this 
ended on our part the "March to the Sea." 

Just twenty-five days had elapsed from the time 
our army left Atlanta until it signalled the fleet off 
the coast. During that time our wing had 
marched 300 miles, destroyed over 400 miles of 
railroad and an amount of cotton that can hardly 
be estimated, and most of the time had lived off the 
country. Of our immense train of 2,500 wagons 
not one had been captured on the route. We had 
moreover secured an almost entirely new stock of 
mules and horses. And to crown all, we had 
won Savannah with an immense amount of the 
spoils of war. It was everywhere the opinion that 
Sherman had struck the hardest blow at the Re- 
bellion that it had yet received, and at the least 

[163] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

cost. The troops were in high spirits over their 
continued successes. The feeling prevailed that 
they had but to start for a place, and it w^as theirs. 
The confidence in Sherman was unlimited. When 
we left Atlanta, on what was considered the most 
perilous movement of the war, I never heard a 
single expression of doubt as to our ultimate suc- 
cess. The Confederates whom we encountered 
considered him the ablest general that had com- 
manded troops in the war, and feared him more 
than any other. 

We remained at Savannah until January 17, 
1 865. Our camp was in a beautiful grove of live 
oaks and pine, festooned with Spanish moss, and 
the weather was delightful. The work was com- 
paratively light, and the men were confidently 
looking forward to the end of the war. We 
built new fortifications around the city on nearly 
the same lines as the old Revolutionary works. 
New roads were constructed across Hutchinson 
Island and northward into South Carolina. We 
were also busy, in order that supplies might be 
brought in as fast as needed, in clearing out the 

[164] 



IN SAVANNAH 

Savannah River, which the enemy had closed 
with obstructions. 

The citizens of Savannah seemed well pleased 
with their change of rulers. They uniformly 
treated us with courtesy, and displayed a sociabil- 
ity that we did not usually encounter in the South. 
In return, General Sherman showed them every 
possible consideration. I was never in a captured 
place where private property was respected and 
protected as it was here, or where citizens were al- 
lowed so many privileges. Employment was fur- 
nished to those who wanted it, and a large amount 
of provisions was placed at the disposal of the 
mayor of the city for distribution among the desti- 
tute. 

A good story was told on the Episcopal rector 
of the town. He had been deputized by the rest 
of the clergy to wait on General Sherman, and get 
permission to preach. When he stated his busi- 
ness, Sherman at once replied, *'Of course you 
can preach ; that is just what I want you to do." 

The preacher then stammered out an enquiry 
whether he would be compelled to pray for the 
President of the United States. "Pray for Jeff. 

[165] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

Davis or the Devil, if you vs^ant to," replied Sher- 
man; *'I think you had better pray for them, for 
they need it more than Lincoln." 

Marching Northward 

On January 1 7 vs^e crossed the Savannah River 
on our bridge of flatboats, and started on our new 
campaign to the North. We vs^ere at the outset 
met by such fearful weather that we were virtually 
brought to a standstill. Only a portion of our 
army had yet crossed to the South Carolina side, 
when a freshet of unprecedented height raised the 
river so suddenly that it swept away the bridge, 
overflowed Hutchinson Island, and carried off a 
lot of wagons and mules that were just about to 
start. The freshet came before there had been a 
drop of rain in our vicinity; but it began to rain 
immediately after, and it seemed as though it 
would never stop. The country everywhere be- 
came a perfect quagmire, and a dry spot was hard 
to find. 

Slowly we proceeded up the east side of 
the Savannah River, the remainder of Sherman's 

army following on the right side. On the 29th, 

[i66] 



PUSHING NORTHWARD 

at Robertsville, we encountered a strong force of 
Wheeler's Cavalry, which delayed our column for 
a short time. Our Regiment, was sent to the front 
to drive them off. The two right companies, un- 
der command of Captain Haskins, deployed as 
skirmishers, and soon swept the enemy away like 
chaff before the wind. On the 30th we opened 
communications with Sherman at Sister's Ferry, 
where he had brought the remainder of his army 
across into South Carolina. 

We now left Savannah River, marching almost 
directly north. Profiting by our previous experi- 
ences, we early organized a foraging party of four 
men from each company. They had permission 
to mount themselves with captured animals as 
soon as possible. In a short time they not only had 
mounts, but sufficient pack animals to carry several 
days' provisions for the Regiment. The first time 
they came into camp they presented a motley ap- 
pearance, riding horses and mules, and displaying 
every variety of saddle and harness known to man. 
But they were soon as well mounted as the cav- 
alry, and had transportation and equipment for 
any service. As we marched northward, the en- 

[167] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

emy's cavalry became more and more active on our 
flanks, so that our foragers were compelled to unite 
for protection. Our detail and that from the Sec- 
ond Massachusetts, under Lieutenant Thompson, 
w^ere united almost from the start. 

The low ground and the constant rains made 
marching so difficult that we rarely covered more 
than twelve miles in a day. Much of the way we 
were obliged to corduroy the roads for the trains. 
For this purpose we used fence rails when they 
were to be had; when there were none, we cut 
timber and brush. Reaching the Charleston & 
Augusta Railroad at Graham Station on Feb- 
ruary 7, we spent the next four days in destroying 
the tracks toward Augusta. 

While we were in camp at Graham Station, 
Colonel Hawley, who now commanded our 
Brigade, and General Slocum, our Corps com- 
mander, had an argument as to the best method of 
tearing up a railroad track. Hawley contended 
that it was best to line up the men along the track, 
and at the word of command have them pick it 
up and turn it over. Slocum protested that this 

could not be done. A bet was made of a bottle 

[i68] 



PUSHING NORTHWARD 

of Apolllnaris water, or something else, and Haw- 
ley sent for his old Regiment to try the experiment. 
When the order came to fall in without arms, our 
men were cooking their supper. Captain Wood- 
ford of Hawley's staff went along the line, while 
we were forming, and explained that the Colonel 
had made a bet as to what the Regiment could do. 
We were soon lined up along the track, and the 
command was given to take hold and lift. In the 
hands of those brawny men, that railroad was a 
plaything. It went over so fast, that some of the 
staff officers v/ho had gathered to watch the per- 
formance, had to miove lively to escape the flying 
rails and ties.^ 

From Graham Station we marched northward 
through constant rain and mud, subsisting entirely 
on the country, without drawing rations except 
coffee or sugar, and generally we had plenty to 
eat ; corn meal and bacon constituted our usual bill 
of fare. The army v/as in fine spirits. In thus 



" A detailed description of the manner of destroying railroad track 
during Sherman's Campaign is given by Gen. H. W. Slocum, " Sher- 
man's March from Savannah to Bentonville,"in CentU7'y Alagazine 
Old Series, xxxiv, p. 930. 

[169] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

picking up a living in such a country, where the 
only products of the soil seemed to be tar and rosin, 
and pitch pines the only visible vegetation, they 
felt confident of their ability to find a living any- 
where. 

Our Corps did not enter Columbia, but crossed 
the Saluda River about ten miles above. The 
Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps of the Army of 
the Tennessee occupied the city, and destroyed 
everything in it. They released about sixty Union 
officers who were confined there ; and between them 
and the soldiers and the whiskey that was found 
Columbia soon ceased to exist. Scarcely a 
private residence, even, was left. The only thing 
that would not burn was the new state-house, said 
to have been the finest in the Union, and this was 
mined and blown up. South Carolina was hav- 
ing a bitter taste of the horrors of war. 

On February 21 we struck at Winnsboro the 
railroad running between Columbia and Char- 
lotteville; and following this northward for a dis- 
tance, destroyed it as we went along. Then 
turning toward the northeast, by way of Rocky 

[ 170 ] 



ROUGH WORK 

Mount, Hanging Rock, and Chesterfield, we 
marched to Fayetteville, North CaroHna. 

During the entire march from Columbia to Fay- 
etteville we had but three pleasant days ; the rain 
was almost continuous. Our road, most of the 
way, was through swamps and creeks, where 
bridges had to be built and roads corduroyed. 
Frequently, from early morning until midnight, we 
worked in rain and mud to get our trains along for 
six or eight miles. The rough work soon wore out 
our clothing — many of the men were barefooted; 
many were wearing citizen's dress; the whole 
army looked more like Falstaff's ragged regiment 
than soldiers of the United States. But we met 
little opposition from the enemy. The spirit of 
four years before seemed to have been beaten out 
of them. We felt that the only Confederate troops 
that would still give us serious fighting, were those 
with Lee at Richmond. 

Arriving at Fayetteville on March 1 2, we once 
more opened communication with the fleet, by way 
of Wilmington and Cape Fear River. On the 
15th we set out on our way to Goldsboro, and 
the first night went early into camp, about ten 

[171] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

miles from Fayetteville. At eight o'clock, how- 
ever, we were sent out again into a dark and stormy 
night to go to the assistance of General Kilpat- 
rick's Cavalry, which had met the enemy. For 
five miles we waded through mud and water to 
the place of danger, and bivouacked for the night 
in line, facing the enemy. In the morning we had 
some sharp skirmishing, but in the afternoon the 
enemy v/ere driven from their position. 

On the 1 9th General Carlin's Division of the 
Fourteenth Corps was attacked and thrown into 
confusion by General Joe Johnston's army near 
Bentonville. Our Brigade was rapidly pushed 
forward with a number of others, and formed 
in line of battle near the left of the Corps. 
The enemy made several attacks, the brunt of 
which fell upon the troops to the right, and then 
retreated. This battle, which the Union Army 
nicknamed the Battle of Acorn Run, in compli- 
ment to the badge of the Fourteenth Corps, was 
the last in which our Regiment was engaged dur- 
ing the war. 

On the 22nd, we advanced once more, and 

found that the enemy was gone. Two days later 

[172] 



THE ANGEL OF PEACE 

we arrived at Goldsboro, and occupied the city 
without opposition. On the 27th, for the first 
time since we had left Savannah, rations were is- 
sued to the troops. 

Peace 

We began the last campaign of the war on 
April 1 0, entering Raleigh on the 1 3th without 
resistance. The next day we again began to or- 
ganize our foraging parties, and to make prepara- 
tions for a campaign back through Georgia. Dur- 
ing the day, however, everything was changed. 
General Johnston, following Lee's surrender on 
April 9, had sent in asking for terms. 

On April 20 I wrote home the following let- 
ter: 

Camp of the 3rd Wis. Vet. Infty. 
Raleigh, N. C, April 20. 1864. 

My Dear— : 

The Angel of Peace has spread his wings over our 
country once more. The glad tidings were announced to 
the army last night by General Sherman in general orders. 
As soon as the agreement which he had made with Gen- 
eral Johnston and higher authorities could be ratified at 

[173] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

Washington, peace would be restored from the Potomac 
to the Rio Grande. It was a glorious day for us who 
have seen the thing through from the beginning to the end. 
General Sherman also says that he expects "soon to have 
the pleasure of conducting this army to its homes," and I 
believe that within six weeks you will see me in Chicago 
"home from the wars." 

I don't know just exactly what the terms of surrender 
are, but it is the opinion of high officers that no troops will 
be needed for garrison duty in the South. The rebels 
have been so completely whipped that they will never want 
to try another rebellion. I understand that JefF. made no 
stipulation for his personal safety, but said he was willing 
to take his trial before the courts, and trust to the mercy 
of the American people. The only difficulty in the nego- 
tiations was on the question of the confiscation of landed 
property, and I have not learned how that was arranged. 
But I believe that we have been so completely victorious 
that we can afford to be merciful, and that a general 
amnesty will do more to cement the Union than the most 
rigorous punishment. The punishment that the South has 
already endured is like Cain's "greater than they can 
bear." The destruction of life in this war in the South 
has been terrible. 

The news that Johnston had asked for terms on which to 
surrender his army was published on the 16th. On the 
morning of the 1 7th a gloom was thrown over the whole 

[174] 



THE ANGEL OF PEACE 

army by the announcement of the assassination of the 
President, which was reported to have occurred on the 
1 1 th. I never saw such a gloomy, sad time since I have 
been in the army as that. I don't think we knew how 
much we did think of him until then. Many expressed 
the opinion that if it had been Andy Johnson and Stanton, 
it would not have been much of a calamity. The next 
day we had New York papers of the 1 4th which made no 
mention of the murder, and we all thought we had been 
hoaxed. Then the explanation was made that the opera- 
tor at Morehead City had made an error, and that the 
assassination had been on the 1 4th instead of the 1 1 th, and 
now I hardly know what to believe about it. We shall 
probably get more news today. 

We are about to move our camp, and now for the first 
time comfort instead of safety is considered in the selection. 
Just think of it ! I can hardly realize it. No more skir- 
mishing, no more digging trenches and building breast- 
works, no more whistling bullets, rattling grape-shot, or 
screaming shells, no more friends and comrades to be 
killed or wounded. 

I don't know what has become of all my letters lately. 
The mail has come in here three times, and I have not had 
a letter. My last letters were dated in February, except 
one from * * * of March 7. I suppose they will all 
come in a heap one of these days . * * * The weather 
is very fine though almost too warm. We have occasional 

[175] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

showers, and vegetation is growing fine. This part of 
North Carolina is very fine country and crops look well. 

A great many of Lee's paroled army are coming in here, 
and they seem more pleased at being whipped or at get- 
ting home than we do at having gained a victory. Some 
of them say they cheered louder when they surrendered 
than Grant's army when they captured them. 

Our camps were now overrun with citizens and 
paroled Confederate soldiers, who were hunting 
for horses that they had lost; some of them had 
come as far as sixty or seventy miles. We gave 
them all the spare horses that we had, for we knew 
that the Government would have to help them in 
some way to keep them from starvation. We 
also issued to them large quantities of rations, for 
there was nothing eatable left in all the track of 
Sherman's army. On the 29th, general orders 
were issued announcing the formal surrender of 
Johnston's army. 

Homeward 

On the next day began the march to Washing- 
ton. We entered Richmond on May 1 1 , and on 

[176] 



THE GRAND REVIEW 

the 1 5th camped near the old battle-field of Chan- 
cellorsville. On the 24th we marched into 
Washington, where the Union army passed in re- 
view before all the dignitaries of our Nation, the 
representatives of foreign lands, and the immense 
throngs of people who had gathered from far and 
near to see Sherman's veterans. For this review, 
we selected from our Regiment, eight companies 
of thirty-two men each — the best drilled soldiers 
that we had. It was my place to ride in the rear 
of the Regiment as it marched down Pennsyl- 
vania Avenue, and no command made a better 
show than ours. From the Capitol to the review- 
ing stand, the marching and wheeling were simply 
perfect. 

We now went into camp near Bladensburg, 
where all of the men whose terms of service ex- 
pired before October 1 were mustered out and sent 
home. On June 6, General Hawley issued his 
farewell order to the old Brigade. When it was 
broken up on the next day, the officers of the Sec- 
ond Massachusetts sent to the officers of our regi- 
ment the formal expression of the feeling with 
which they parted from us. We replied in a sim- 
12 [ 177 ] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

ilar letter. Even now, after a lapse of twenty- 
six years, it stirs the blood to read these two mes- 
sages.^ 



*This correspondence was as follows: 

Second Massachusetts Infantry, 

Camp Slocum, Washington, D. C, 
June 4. 1865. 

We, the undersigned, officers of the Second Massachusetts Infantry, wish to ex- 
press to the officers of the Third Wisconsin Infantry our heartfelt regret that the 
fortunes of the service are about to separate our respective organizations. 

From the campaign of 1862, in the Shenandoah Valley to the present glorious 
close of this bloody war, we have fought and marched side by side with you in 
almost every rebellious state. To have been Lngaded together for so long a time 
is in itself remarkable; no less so is it that between our two regiments there should 
always have existed such strong feelings of friendship and mutual regard, uotinged 
by the slightest shadow of jealousy. 

As we recall now, some of the hard positions we have been in, we cannot help 
remembering how often our anxiety was lessened by the knowledge that the old 
Third Wisconsin was close at hsnd to support us. We know that you have had 
the same thoughts about us. Nothing m this whole war will be pleasanter for us 
to look back upon than this feeling of mutual respect and reliance. It not only 
elevated the tone of both our regiments, but we honestly believe, it went a great 
way toward making our brigade and division what they are now acknowledged to 
be — among the very best organizations of the army. 

We assure you that in our own State, wherever the Second Ma«sachusetts is 
known, its brother regiment is also famous. Whenever any of us have been at 
home, among the first inquiries would be, " How is the Third Wisconsin? " It 
has been with pride that we have answered, " It is the same staunch old regiment 
that fought at Antietam and Chancellorsvllle." 

These are not compliments but expressions of plain, honest feelings. We have 
been knit together by deeds not word-; deeds, which, as time goes on, we shall look 
back upon with continually increasing pride. 

Together we have shared dangers and hardships, victories and defeats; and it is 
hard now for us to part; but in the natural order of things, the war being over, you 
go towards your homes in the west, we stay near ours in the east. Let us not, 
however, though separated by thousands of miles, forget these old aissociations. Let 
us rather cherish them wit i the fondest recollections: let it be a st iry to hand down 
to our children and children's children, how the Second Massachusetts and Third 

[178I 



FRATERNAL MESSAGES 

The Western veteran regiments still had work 
before them, and were not mustered out. They 
were organized as a provisional Brigade under 

Wisconsin fought shoulder to shoulder through the great rebellion, and achieved 
together glory and renown. We ask you to accept this testimonial as a slight evi- 
dence of our affection and esteem. We bid you farewell, and God bless you, one 
and all, 

C. F. Morse, Lieutenant Colonel, Com.; James Francis, Major; C. E. Munn, 
Surgeon; John A. Fox, Adjutant; E. A. Hawes, Quartermaster; Captains — 
Daniel Oakey, F. W. Crowninshield, E. A. Phalen, George A. Thayer, 
Theodore K. Parker, Dennis Mehan, Henry N. Comey, William E. 
Perkins; First Lieutenants — George J. 1 hompson, Jesse Richardson, Moses P» 
Richardson, William T. Mc Alpine, Jed C. Thompson, William D. Toombs^ 



Third Wisconsin V. V. Infantry, 

Camp Slocum, near Washington, D. C. 
June 7. 1865. 
To the officers of the Second Massachusetts Veteran Volunteer infantry: 

The undersigned, officers of the Third Wisconsin Veteran Volunteer Infantry, 
tender their heartfelt thanks for your friendly communication of the 4th inst. It 
was with mingled feelings of pride and pleasure, not, however, unmixed with pain, 
that we perused it — pride at being thus associated with a regiment, which by pa- 
tient endurance, good discipline, and unflinching bravery, has won for itself so hon- 
orable a name as the Second Massachusetts; pleaisure at the thought that, even 
amid the stirring scenes of active war, the finer attributes of humanity are not for- 
gotten, and that friendship, one of the noblest sentiments of the soul, still asserts 
her claims; pain at the recollection of the many gallant and brave, whose names 
have been associated with yours in the great struggle now happily terminated, but 
who have given their lives for a country they loved so well. 

That "every rose has its thorn" was never more apparent to us than now. While 
in the toil and suffering of our active campaigns, we have looked forward with un- 
mixed joy to the time when the angel of peace should once more spread her wings 
over the land, and we should return home to enjoy the sweets of social and civil 
life, but now that the hour is at hand when we must say farewell to those with 
whom we have been associated in the service of our common country, when we 
must join the partmg hand with you, our companions and brothers in arms, our joy 
is mingled with sadness and our smiles with tears. 

We accept your communication, not only as a manifestation of personal regard, 

[179] 



SERVICE WITH THE THIRD 

Hawley's command, and ordered to Louisville, 
Kentucky. Our Regiment left the east on June 1 1 , 
travelling by way of the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 
road to Parkersburg, and then down the Ohio 
River to Louisville. Here the Regiment was filled 
up with men from other Wisconsin commands, that 
were mustered out of service, until we had about 
] ,300 on our muster rolls. It was rumored, and 
in fact intended, that we should go to Mexico to 
drive out the French. The programme was en- 
tirely changed, however, when news came of the 



but also as a fraternal greeting from the east to the west, whicli rising superior to 
local jealousies and factional strife, and remembering only the mingled dust of our 
dead on many battlefields, and the common country for which they sacrificed their 
all, proclaims us, in heart and in country, one and inseparable. 

In parting, we assure you that, highly as we prize this expression of sentiment 
toward us, and sacredly as we will preserve it as the highest honor yet received, it 
is not needed to secure remembrance. The ineffaceable pictures of the past deeply 
engraven in our hearts, and lit up by the eternal flame of friendship will ever keep 
the Second Massachusetts Veteran Volunteer Infantry promment among our pleas- 
ing memories in the future. 

Wishing you all success and happiness and Heaven's best blessing, we bid you 
farewell. We are, brothers, yours fraternally, 

George W. Stevenson, Lieutenant-Colonel; Warham Parks, Major; J. G. Conley, 
Surgeon; T. J. Kopff, Assistant Surgeon; A. C. Taylor, Adjutant; J. T. 
Marvin, Quartermaster; I. E. Springer, Chaplain. Captains — Ralph Van 
Brunt, Julian W. Hinckley, N. Daniels, E. Giddings, A. D. Haskins, C. 
R. Barager, J. Woodford, John M. Schweers, John E. Kleven. First 
Lieutenants — Stephen Lieurance, Oliver A. Hegg, J._D. Goodrich, John 
Agnew, John B. Du Bois, Abner Hubbell, J. D. Babcock, W. W. 
Freeman, George H. Cutter. Second Lieutenants — E. V. Moran, Lewis 
Colby, Edwin F. Proctor, Elon G. Biers, David Clark, A. S, Hill. 

[i8o] 



MUSTERED OUT 

voluntary withdrawal of the French soldiers, and 
orders were issued to muster out our Regiment. 

A considerable number of our old veterans did 
not want to go home. A company was made up 
of those who wished to enter the services of the 
Juarez government in Mexico — at least they 
wished to go, if I would go in command. I was not 
quite ready, however, to become a soldier of for- 
tune. When our duty to the Federal Government 
had been accomplished, I was as anxious as any 
to be mustered out of the army of war, and return 
to the army of peace. 



[i8i] 



INDEX 



Agnew, Lieut. John, of Third Wisconsin, 180. 
Alexandria (Va.), 92, 93, 95; Army of Potomac at, 45. 
Ames Gen. Adelbert, commands expedition, 79. 
Armies — 

Cumberland, Third "Wisconsin joins, 97; reorganized, 115; 
at New Hope Church, 125. 

Hood's, plunders Atlanta, 142. 

Jackson's, at Chancellorsville, 71. 

Johnston's, at Bentonville, 172; surrenders, 114, 176, 

Northern Virginia, 39, 81; battleflags captured, 91; paroled, 
176. 

Potomac, 17, 39, 41, 64, 66, 117, 159; at Washington, 46; 
consolidated, 115; Third Wisconsin leaves, 97. 

Sherman's, 176; advance, 116; at Atlanta, 143; Savannah, 
157; in South Carolina, 158; Georgia, 166. 

Tennessee, 122, 133, 146; destroys Columbia, 170. 

Thomas's, opposes Hood, 147. 

Western, successful, 17. 

Western Virginia, 38, 43. 
Atlanta (Ga.), 112, 143, 163, 164; exposed, 131; march to, 116; 
besieged, 131-141; evacuated, 140, 147; Union army near, 
129, 142, 145; destroyed, 146, 147. 
Augur, Gen. Christopher C, at Cedar Mountain, 33. 
Augusta (Ga.), 168; Slocum marches toward, 147. 
Augusta Railroad, destroyed, 147, 148. 

Babcock, Lieut. Justin D., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

Baltimore (Md.), threatened, 93. 

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 98, ISO. 

Banks, Gen. Nathaniel P., 14, 45; commands corps 30, 31; re- 
treats, 23, 25, 27, 28; protects Winchester, 29; at Cedar 
Mountain, 32, 33, 38; criticized, 37. 



[183 



INDEX 

Barager, Capt. Charles R., of Third Wisconsin, 180; wounded, 

132; in Sherman's campaign, 157, 160. 
Battles — 

Acorn Run, 172. 

Antietam, 51-63, 70, 94, 178. 

Bentonville, 172. 

Bolivar Heights, 13. 

Cassville, 122. 

Catoctin Mountains, 48. 

Chancellorsville, 69-77, 177, 178. 

Chantilly, 44. 

Chickamauga, 100, 116. 

Dallas, 122-126. 

Fort Donelson, 14. 

Fort Henry, 14. 

Fredericksburg, 64, 76. 

Gettysburg, 82-89, 94. 

Jonesboro, 141. 

Kettle Run, 42. 

Lookout Mountain, 102, 

Manassas, 42, 43. 

Missionary Ridge, 102. 

Monteith Swamp, 153, 154. 

Murfreesboro, 99. 

New Hope Church, 122-126. 

Peach Tree Creek, 129, 134. 

Pumpkinvine Creek, 126. 

Resaca, 117-122. 

Roanoke Island, 14. 

Somerset, 14. 

South Mountain, 50, 51. 

Winchester, 18, 19. 
Bealeton Station (Va.), 79, 97. 
Bentonville (N. C), Sherman at, 169. 
Benwood (W. Va.), 98. 

Bertram, Capt. Henry, at Bolivar Heights, 12, 13. 
Biers, Lieut. Elon G., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

[184] 



INDEX 

Birney, Gen. David B., at Chancellorsville, 71, 74. 
Bladensburg (Md.), army encamped near, 177. 
Blanehard, Lieut. Edward L., wounded, 132. 
Bolivar Heiglits (Va.), 15. See also Battles. 
Boone, — , Confederate officer, 107, 108. 
Boone, Daniel, grandson captured, 107. 
Boonsborough (Md.), 50, 51. 
Bostwick (Ga.), lumber destroyed, 152. 
Bragg, Gen. Braxton, reenforced, 96. 
Brandy Station (Va.), 79, 97. 
Bridgeport (Ala.), 100, 116. 
Bristoe Station (Va.), cars burned at, 43. 
Brixey, Capt. Calvin, murders citizen, 114; killed, 115. 
Broad Run (Va.), 43. 
Brodhead, Col. Thornton F., death, 38. 
Brown, John, at Harpers Ferry, 10; hung, 16. 
Brown, Gov. Joseph E., releases convicts, 149. 
Buck, Capt. Wilson S., wounded, 154. 
Buena Vista (Wis.), school at, 1. 
Buffalo (N. Y.), reception at, 8. 
Bull Run (Va.), 44. See also Battles: Manassas. 
Butterfield, Gen. Daniel, in skirmish, 118. 
Burnside, Gen. Ambrose E., at Roanoke Island, 14; removed, 
64. 

Camp Randall (Wis.), 120. 

Camp Slocum (Washington, D. C), 178, 179. 

Carlin, Gen. William P., at Bentonville, 172. 

Cassville (Ga.), occupied, 122. 

Cemetery Ridge (Pa.), 83; charge on, 87. See also Battles: 

Gettysburg. 
Centerville (Va.), 44, 81. 
Century Magazine, 169. 
Chancellor House (Va.), 70, 72, 73, 76. 
Charleston (S. C), 146, 153. 
Charleston & Augusta Railroad, destroyed, 168. 
Charlestown (Va.), 13, 16. 

[185] 



INDEX 

Charlotte ville (S. C), railroad destroyed, 170. 

Chattanooga (Tenn.), 101; campaign at, 97, 100, 107, 127, 146. 

Chesterfield (S. C), 171. 

Chicago (111.), 7, 174. 

Chilcote, Judge — , murdered, 114. 

Chippewa Indians, in Wisconsin regiment, 143; at Sanders- 

viUe, 151. 
Clark, Capt. Andrew, commands militia, 3. 
Clark, Lieut. David B., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 
Cleveland (Ohio), 7. 

Colby, Lieut. Lewis, of Third Wisconsin, 180. 
Colgrove, Col. Silas, at Chancellorsville, 75. 
Collins, Joseph, killed, 61. 
Columbia (S. C), 170, 171. 
Columbus (Ohio), reception at, 98. 
Comey, Capt. Henry N., of Second Massachusetts, 179. 
Conley, Surg. J. Griffin, of Third Wisconsin, 125, 126, 180. 
Connecticut, 97; Fifth Regiment, 23. 
Cooper, Judge Henry, appeals to Lincoln, 108. 
Corps — 

First (Slgel's), 30, at Cedar Mountain, 36; (Hooker's), at 
Antietam, 52; Gettysburg, 83, 86. 

Second, at Gettysburg, 87. 

Third (McDowell's), 30; at Cedar Mountain, 36; (Heintzel- 
man's), 42; (Sickles's), at Gettysburg, 84, 85. 

Fourth, defeated, 117. 

Fifth (Banks's), 30; (Porter's), 42; at Chancellorsville, 66, 
71. 

Sixth (Franklin's), 51, 62; (Sedgwick's), at Fredericksburg, 
76. 

Ninth (Burnside's), at Catoctin Mountains, 48. 

Eleventh, 97, 100, 115; at Chancellorsville, 66, 69, 71; Gettys- 
burg, 83. 

Twelfth, 78, 81, 91, 115; at Chancellorsville, 66, 69, 89; 
Gettysburg, 89. 

Fourteenth, at Bentbnville, 172. 

Fifteenth, destroys Columbia, 170. 
[i86] 



INDEX 

Seventeenth, destroys Columbia, 170. 

Twentieth, 115, 128, 133, 134, 135, 139, 147; in Atlanta cam- 
paign, 131, 138, 141, 144; Savannah campaign, 170; at New 
Hope Church, 125; Peach Tree Creek, 129, 134, 135. 

Twenty-Third, 119. 

For Confederate Corps, see names of commanders. 
Crane, Lieut. Col. Louis H., at Cedar Mountain, 32; killed, 

34, 35. 
Crawford, Gen. Samuel W., at Cedar Mountain, 32-34. 
Creeks — 

Antietam, 51, 63. 

Buffalo, 150. 

Cedar Run, 20, 32, 35. 

Chattanooga, 153. 

Peach Tree, 129. 

Rock, 83, 85, 87. 
Crowninshield, Capt. Francis W., of Second Massachusetts, 

179. 
Culpeper (Va.), 37, 38. 
Culpeper Court House (Va.), 32, 46. 
Cumberland (Md.), 82. 
Cutter, Lieut. George H., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

Dallas, (Ga.), 122. See also Battles. 

Daniels, Capt. Nahum, of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

Darnestown (Md.), 11, 47. 

Davis, Col. — , killed, 79. 

Davis, Jefferson, 166; surrenders, 174. 

Dayton (Ohio), 98. 

Donnelly, Col. Dudley, commands brigade, 24, 26. 

Douglas, Stephen A., presidential candidate, 151. 

Du Bois, Lieut. John B., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

Edwards Ferry (Md.), crossed, 47. 
Englishmen, in Wisconsin regiment, 143. 
Erie (Pa.), 7. 

[187] 



INDEX 

Fairfax Station (Va.), winter camp at, 64. 

Falling Waters (Md.), 90. 

Fayetteville (Tenn.), 108, 111, 112, 114, 115, 120; county seat, 

105. 
Fayetteville (N. C), 171, 172. 
Fond du Lac (Wis.), 5, 6. 
Fords — 

Beverly, 40; crossed, 79, 80. 

Germanna, skirmish at, 6G-69. 

Kelly's, crossed, 66. 

Raccoon, 96. 

United States, 69. 

FOBTS — 

Donelson, 14. 

Henry, 14. 

McHenry, 11. 

Sumter, surrenders, 3. 
Fox, Adj. John A., of Second Massachusetts, 179. 
Francis, Maj. James, of Second Massachusetts, 179. 
Franklin, Gen. William B., at Harpers Ferry, 52; Antietam, 62, 
Frederick City (Md.), 12, 14, 47-49; capital, 11; cemetery 

at, 13. 
Fredericksburg (Va.), skirmish at, 70. 
Freeman, Lieut. William W., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 
Fremont, Gen. John C, 29. 

French, in Wisconsin regiment, 143; in Mexico, 180, 181. 
Fritchie, Barbara, displays flag, 48, 49. 
Front Royal (Va.), 22, 29, 30. 
Furlong, John, killed, 161. 

Gaps — 

Chester, 30. 

Snake Creek, 117. 

Snicker's, 18. 
Gardner, Capt. Silas E., investigates murder, 115. 
Geary, Gen. John W., 148; at Bolivar Heights, 12; Chancellors- 
ville, 73; Gettysburg, 89; New Hope Church, 122. 

[i88] 



INDEX 

Georgetown (Md.), 45. 

Georgia, 96, 115, 149; secession, 151; regiment from, 121; cam- 
paign in, 173; restored, 152. 
Georgia Central Railroad, destroyed, 151. 
Germans, in Wisconsin regiment, 143. 
Giddings, Capt. Epliraim, of Third Wisconsin, 180. 
Goldsboro (N. C), 171; occupied, 173. 
Goodrich, Lieut. John D., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 
Gordon, Col. George H., commands brigade, 18, 24. 
Graham Station (S. C), 168, 169. 
Grant, Gen. Ulysses S., 14, 176. 
Greene, Gen. George S., at Gettysburg, 86. 

hagerstown (Md.), 8. 

Hamilton, Gen. Charles S., commands brigade, 18. 
Hanging Rock (S. C), 171. 

Harpers Ferry (Va.), 9, 10, 62, 63, 91; expedition to, 12; sur- 
renders, 52. 
Harrisonburg (Va.), 21. 
Haskins, Capt. Alexander D., of Third Wisconsin, 180; at 

Robertsville, 167. 
Hawes, Q. M. Edwin A., of Second Massachusetts, 179. 
Hawley, Gen. William, 115; wounded, 34; commands brigade, 

168, 180; at New Hope Church, 124, 125; Atlanta, 131; 

Savannah, 160, 161; in Carolina campaign, 169; farewell 

order, 177. 
Hazel Grove (Va.), skirmish at, 70, 74. 
Hegg, Lieut. Oliver A., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 
Heintzelman, Gen. Samuel P., commands corps, 42. 
Hill, Lieut. Algie S., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 
Hinckley, Capt. Julian W., 180; early life, 1; promoted, 5, 

16, 64; wounded, 124-127. 
Hood, Gen. John B., 152; at New Hope Church, 122; Peach 

Tree Creek, 129; Atlanta, 138, 139, 142; Jonesboro, 141; 

in Nashville campaign, 143, 146, 147. 

[189] 



INDEX 

Hooker, Gen. Joseph, commands army, G4; corps, 115; super- 
seded, 82; at Antietam, 52, 57; Chancellorsville, 69, 70, 
76; Chattanooga, 100; New Hope Church, 125; resigns, 
134, 135; characterized, 133-135, 140. 

Howard, Gen. Oliver O., 117; commands army wing, 147; 
Army of Tennessee, 133, 134. 

Hubbell, Lieut. Abner, of Third Wisconsin, ISO. 

Hunter, Capt. James W., wounded, 126, 127; death, 128. 

Ijamsville (Md.), 47. 

Indiana, 98; Twenty-Seventh Regiment, 24, 25; at Antietam, 

55, 57, 61; Chancellorsville, 75. 
Indianapolis (Ind.), 98. 
Irish, in Wisconsin regiment, 143. 
Islands — 

Argyle, 157; described, 156. 

Hutchinson, 164, 166. 

Johnson's, military prison on, 108. 

Jackson, Gen. Thomas J. (Stonewall), 17, 20-22; at Kerns- 
town, 19; Chancellorsville, 71, 74; killed, 73. 

Jefferson, Thomas, cited, 11. 

Jefferson Rock (Va.), visited, 10. 

Johnson, Andrew, 175. 

Johnson, Hon. Herschel V., sketch, 151, 152. 

Johnston, Gen. Joseph E., superseded, 129; at Bentonville, 172; 
surrenders, 114, 173, 174, 176. 

Jonesboro (Ga.), 141, 143. 

Juarez, Benito P., service with, 181. 

Keedysville (Md.), 50. 

Kelly's Ferry (Tenn.), 101. 

Kelly's Ferry (Va.), 92, 96. 

Kernstown (Va.), skirmish at, 19. 

Ketcham, Col. John H., assesses damages, 106. 

Kettle Run (Va.), 43; skirmish at, 42. 

Kilpatrick, Gen. Hugh J., at Falling Waters, 90; skirmish, 172. 

[ 190 ] ■' 



INDEX 

Kingston (Ga.), 127. 

Kleven, Capt. John E., ISO; at Monteith Swamp, 154. 

Kopff, Asst. Surg. Thomas, of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

Lee, Gen. Robert E., 96, 97; at Rappahannock River, 39; Rich- 
mond, 171; surrenders, 173, 176. 

Leesburg (Va.), executions at, 81. 

Lewis, Gov. James T., 120. 

Libby prison, 29. 

Lieurance, Lieut. Stephen, of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

Limboclier, Capt. George W., 25, 26. 

Lincoln, President Abraham, 166; call for troops, 3; at Mary- 
land Heights, 63; pardons, 109; appoints Howard, 134; 
votes for, 146; assassinated, 175. 

Lincoln County (Tenn.), 105; guerrillas in, 106, 114; reorgan- 
ized, 109-111. 

Little Round Top (Pa.), 84. See also Battles: Gettysburg. 

Little Washington (Va.), 31. 

Losses: at Bolivar Heights, 13; Winchester, 19, 20; in retreat 
to Martinsburg, 29; Cedar Mountain, 34-36; Antietam, 60- 
63; Gettysburg, 89; New Hope Church, 126; Peach Tree 
Creek, 129, 134, 135. 

Louisville (Ky.), 98, 145, 180. 

Lynchburg (Tenn.), birthplace of David Crockett, 105. 

McAlpine, Lieut. William T., of Second Massachusetts, 179. 

McClellan, Gen. George B., 15, 47; arrests legislature, 11; re- 
treats, 39; reappointed, 46; removed, 64; votes for, 146. 

McDowell, Gen. Irvin, commands corps, 30; at Cedar Moun- 
tain, 36; criticized, 38; removed, 46. 

Mclntyre, Capt. James B., mustering officer, 6. 

Macon (Ga.), march toward, 147. 

Macon Railroad, captured, 141. 

McPherson, Gen. James B., killed, 133. 

Madison (Ga.), 148. 

Madison (Wis.), 4, 104, 120; veterans at, 105. 

Maine, Tenth Regiment, at Cedar Mountain, 35. 

[191] 



INDEX 

Manassas Junction (Va.), 18, 41, 81. See also Battles. 

Mansfield, Gen. Joseph K., commands corps, 47. 

Marietta (Ga.), 122. 

Marvin, Q. M. Joseph T., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

Martinsburg (W. Va.), retreat to, 27; confedei'ates at, 81. 

Maryland, legislature arrested, 11; Lee enters, 47; plundered, 

51. 
Maryland Heights (Md.), 10; Lincoln at, 63. 
Massachusetts, Second Regiment, 18, 25, 77, 78; letter of, 177- 

179; letter to, 179; at Antietam, 55, 61; Germanna Ford, 

69; Raccon Ford, 96; Atlanta, 136; in South Carolina, 162. 

168; Twelfth Regiment, at Bolivar Heights, 12. 
Meade, Gen. George G., commands Army of Potomac, 82. 
Mehan, Capt. Dennis, of Second Massachusetts, 179. 
"Merrimac," Third "Wisconsin embarks on, 93. 
Mexico, 180, 181. 
Michigan, First Cavalry, 27; 
Middleton (Md.), 50. 

Miles, Col. Dixon S., surrenders Harpers Ferry, 52. 
Milledgeville (Ga.), 150; capital city, 148; arsenal destroyed 

at, 149. 
Millen (Ga.), railroad destroyed, 153. 
Millen & Augusta Railroad, destroyed, 153. 
Miller, — , captured, 108. 
Miller, Mrs. — , secures aid, 108. 
"Mississippi," Third Wisconsin embarks on, 95. 
Monroe (Wis.), 120. 

Monteith Station (Ga.), mail captured, at, 154. 
Montgomery (Ala.), confederate capital, 1. 
Moran, Lieut. Edward V., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 
Morehead City (N. C), 175. 
Morse, Lieut. Col. Charles F., of Second Massachusetts, 179; 

at Atlanta, 136. 
Mountains — 
Blue Ridge, IS, 30, 92. 
Catoctin, 49; skirmish at, 48; crossed, 50. 
Cedar, 32. 

[192] 



INDEX 

Lookout, 101. 

South, crossed, 50, 
Mulberry (Tenn.), 105. 

Munn, Surg. Curtis E., of Second Massachusetts, 179, 
Murfreesboro (Tenn.), 99. 

Nashville (Tenn.), 98, 99; military governor at, 109. 

Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, described, 99, 

New Jersey, Thirteenth Regiment, 96; transferred, 47; at 
Chancellors ville, 73; Atlanta, 133, 135. 

New Market (Va.), manoeuver at, 21. 

New York (City), 65, 92, 95, 175; draft riot, 93. 

New York (State), draft riot, 94; regiment, deserters executed, 
81; First Artillery, at Gettysburg, 87; Savannah, 157; 
Ninth Regiment, transferred, 18; Twenty-Eighth Regi- 
ment, 23; One Hundred Seventh Regiment, transferred, 
47; at Milledgeville, 148; One Hundred Forty-Fifth Regi- 
ment, 103; One Hundred Fiftieth Regiment, 106, 130. 

Nickajack Pass (Ga.), crossed, 116, 

North Carolina, described, 176, 

Norwegians, in Wisconsin regiment, 143. 

Oakey, Capt. Daniel A., of Second Massachusetts, 179. 

O'Brien, Capt. Moses, killed, 35, 36. 

Ohio, trip through, 98, 

Orton, Capt. Thomas E., wounded, 132. 

"Paint Rock", captured steamer, 100. 

Parker, Capt. Theodore K., of Second Massachusetts, 179. 

Parkersburg (W. Va.), 180. 

Parks, Maj. Warham, of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

Pennsylvania, invaded, 81, 91, 93; Twenty-Eighth Regiment, at 

Bolivar Heights, 12; Twenty-Ninth Regiment, retreats, 

24; officers discharged, 128. 
Perkins, Capt. William E., of Second Massachusetts, 179. 
Persons, Surg. Horace T,, of First Wisconsin Cavalry, 127. 
Phalen, Capt, Edward A., of Second Massachusetts, 179. 

[ 193] 



INDEX 

Pickett, Gen. George E., charge at Gettysburg, 88, 89. 
Pope, Gen. John, commands army, 30; criticized, 31, 37, 38; 

retreats, 38; at Manassas, 43; removed, 46. 
Portage County (Wis.), 1. 
Porter, Gen. Fitz John, commands corps, 42. 
Prjpe, Col. Edward L., court martialed, 103. 
Prisoxs — 

Fort McHenry, 11. 

Johnson's Island, 109. 

LIbby, 29. 
Proctor, Lieut. Edwin F., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

Kaleigh (N. C), campaign, 114, 173. 
Rappahannock Station (Va.), 92. 
"Red Star" Division, guards railroad track, 99. 
Resaca (Ga.), enemy abandon, 122. 
"Resolute", armed tender, captured, 157, 158. 
Richardson, Lieut. Moses P., of Second Massachusetts, 179. 
Richardson, Lieut. Jesse, of Second Massachusetts, 179. 
Richmond (Va.), campaign against, 117; Lee at, 171; Union 
army, 176. 

RiVEBS — 

Cape Fear, 171. 

Chattahoochee, 128, 137-139; crossed, 129. 
Elk, 106. 

Etowah, crossed, 122. 
Monocacy, enemy at, 48. 
Oconee, 148. 
Ohio, 180; crossed, 98. 
Potomac, 93, 174; crossed, 28, 45, 81. 
Rapidan, 37, 66, 96. 

Rappahannock, 92; crossed, 38, 40, 41, 66, 69, 79. 
Rio Grande, 174. 
Saluda, crossed, 170. 

Savannah, 167; naval battle in, 155-157; described, 156; 
cleared, 165; crossed, 166. 
Shenandoah, 21. 
Tennessee, 100, 101; crossed, 116. 

[ 194 ] 



INDEX 

Roberts ville (S. C), skirmish at, 107. 

Rocky Mount (S. C), 170. 

Ruger, Gen. Thomas H., West Point graduate, 5; at Cedar 

Mountain, 32; Chancellorsville, 75; commands expedition, 

92; brigade, 115. 
Ruger, Capt. William, wounded, 126, 127. 

Sandersville (Ga.), plundered, 150; skirmish at, 151. 

Sandy Hook (Md.), 10, 15. 

Savannah (Ga.), 146, 150, 152, 153, 156, 158, 173; Sherman at, 
155, 163, 169; skirmish, 162; evacuated, 161, 162, 164-166. 

Schweers, Capt. John M., of Third Wisconsin, ISO. 

Scotch, in Wisconsin regiment, 143. 

Scott, Lieut. Col. John W., wounded, 34; killed, 70. 

Secession, conventions, 1; in Georgia, 151; Lincoln County, 106; 
Maryland, 11; South Carohna, 2, 146. 

Sedgwick, Gen. John, at Antietam, 58, 59; Fredericksburg, 76. 

Seminary Ridge (Pa.), 89. See also Battles: Gettysburg. 

Shelby ville (Tenn.), 99, 108. 

Shenandoah Valley, campaign in, 178. 

Sherman, Gen. William T., 169; Georgia campaign, 143, 147, 
149, 163; Carolina campaign, 176; at New Hope Church, 
125; Atlanta, 116, 139, 143, 144; Jonesboro, 141; Milledge- 
ville, 150; Savannah, 155, 165; Sister's Ferry, 167; an- 
nounces peace, 173, 174; grand review, 177; characterized, 
134, 164. 

Shields, Gen. James, 29; at Kemstown, 19, 20; wounded, 18. 

Sigel, Gen. Franz, commands corps, 30; at Cedar Mountain, 
36, 37. 

Sister's Ferry (S. C), Sherman at, 167. 

Blocum, Gen. Henry W., at Germanna Ford, 68; Vicksburg, 
115; Graham Station, 168; commands corps, 139; army 
wing, 147; on "Sherman's March", 169; characterized, 140. 

Smith, Maj. Alfred B., commands brigade picket line, 130. 

Smith Plantation, in South Carolina, 158-161. 

South Carolina, secedes, 2; begins war, 146; campaign in, 158, 
164, 166, 167, 170. 

[195] 



INDEX 

Springer, Rev. Isaac E., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

Springer, Rev. John M., killed, 120. 

Springfield (Ga.), 153. 

Spott Tavern (Va.), 79. 

Stafford Court House (Va.), 77, 92; winter camp, 64, 66. 

Stanton, Edwin M., 175. 

Stevenson, Lieut. Col. George W., of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

Stevenson (Ala.), 99. 

Strasburg (Va.), 17, 20, 21. 

Strawberry Plains (Tenn.), 153. 

Stuart, Gen. James E. B., headquarters captured, 80. 

Sumner, Gen. Edwin V., at Antietam, 57-59. 

Tattnall, Commodore Josiah, commands fleet, 157. 

Taylor, Adj. Asher C, of Third Wisconsin, 180. 

Tennalleytown (D. C), Army of Potomac at, 46. 

Tennessee, 115; Union Cavalry Regiment, 113, 114. 

Tennille Station (Ga.), railroad buildings destroyed, 151. 

Thayer, Capt. George A., of Second Massachusetts, 179. 

Thomas, Gen. George H., at Somerset, 14; New Hope Church, 
125; disapproves resignations, 128; opposes Hood, 147. 

Thompson, Lieut. George J., of Second Massachusetts, 168, 
179. 

Thompson, Lieut Jed C, of Second Massachusetts, 179, 

Toledo (Ohio), 7. 

Toombs, Lieut. William D., of Second Massachusetts, 179. 

Tullahoma (Tenn.), 102, 103, 105, 114, 115; corps headquar- 
ters, 108, 113. 

Two Taverns (Pa.), 82. 

Van Brunt, Capt. Ralph, of Third Wisconsin, 180. 
Vermont, First Regiment, rear guard, 27. 
Vicksburg (Miss.), 115. 
Virginia, departure for, 7. 



[196] 



INDEX 

Waebenton Junction (Va.), 41, 42. 

Wartrace (Tenn.), 99, 100. 

Washington (D. C), 41, 47, 65, 98, 108, 128; Army of Potomac 
in, 46; threatened, 93; peace ratified at, 174; march to, 
176; grand review, 177. 

Waupun (Wis.), campaign of 1860 at, 1; Light Guard, organ- 
ized, 3-5. 

Welsh, in Wisconsin regiment, 143. 

West Point (N. Y.), Military Academy, graduates, 5. 

Wheeler, Gen. Joseph, 99, 159; at Sandersville, 151; at Roberts- 
ville, 167. 

Whittier, John G., poem, 49. 

Williams, Gen. Alpheus S., 115, 117; at Cedar Mountain, 32; 
New Hope Church, 125. 

Williamsport (Md.), 28, 29; Confederates at, 81, 89, 90. 

Williamsport (Pa.), reception at, 8. 

Wilkins, Capt. William D., 20; at Cedar Mountain, 32, 33, 37. 

Wilmington (N. C), fleet at, 171. 

Winchester (Va.), 20, 29; skirmish at, 16; captured, 17; re- 
treat to, 22; threatened, 30; Confederates at, 81. 

Winegar, Capt. Charles E., captures steamer, 157. 

Winnsboro (S. C), railroad track destroyed, 170. 

Wisconsin, 128; quota filled, 4; Tenth Regiment, at Chatta- 
nooga, 100. 

Woodford, Capt. Jasper, of Third Wisconsin, 169, 180. 

Xenia (Ohio), reception at, 98. 



[197] 



PUBLICATIONS OF WISCONSIN HISTORY COMMISSION 
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fantry. With two annpn^?<^.c • x w Wisconsin Volunteer In- 

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xix+iyo. Index. Published May, 1911, ' ^^ 

TuL^ wtr^'^'T^'' f 1 ^^^"'^''^'^ "^"^ ^^^ Third Wisconsin Infantry By 

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InVeZatZ" "" *" ^'™'^ ^'"^™- ^' «-■ ■'»'"''■' "oyfl-Jones. 

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ThiZ^^^.^^''^^ ""^ Gettysburg. By Prank Aretas Haskell, Colonel of 
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N^TembeVlTo8"'leV;%-t^^"V';;^^^^^ PP .xi?i + 185- ^puMishe^d 
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by Col. J. A. Watrous) : pp. xxviii+l92; Index; published April, 1910. 

2. Civil War Messages and Proclamations of Wisconsin War Pxov 
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of the staff of the Wisconsin Historical Library. In press 



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